Fans at the Australian Open have seen Victoria Azarenka displaying a version of the “dab” to celebrate her victories into the fourth-round.
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Johanna Konta has been backed to become the first British woman to reach a grand slam quarter-final since 1984, by the record’s current holder Jo Durie. She plays 10th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro in a night match on Rod Laver Arena. She played well, plus I was more nervous than I expected. she played well on every point – she has got much better since we met at the French Open – she is going up and up, such a good player.
“I just wanted to think outside the box”, said Williams, who has never been called a fashion conformist.
Born in Sydney and fluent in English and Hungarian – the first language of father Gabor – Konta headed to Spain when she was 14 to follow her tennis dream.
Serena Williams of the United States hits a forehand return to Daria Kasatkina of Russian Federation during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.
Belinda Bencic secured her place in the fourth round and then enjoyed watching Radwanska put on a show, tweeting: “Just love watching @ARadwanska play!!”
The British number one has picked up where she left off in NY four months ago by looking totally at home on the Grand Slam stage, and again reaching the last 16.
Coming into the Australian Open, Williams hadn’t completed a match since her sensational US Open semifinal defeat to Roberta Vinci last September.
– Arantxa, what side are you on?: If you spotted Arantxa Sanchez Vicario courtside during the second round match between Carla Suárez Navarro and Maria Sakkari, you probably thought she was there cheering on her compatriot.
A switch in training base to Gijon, Spain in March of previous year seems to have done the trick while she is also now much calmer on court, thanks in part to her work with a mind coach.
“I’m getting a lot of Australia questions”. “But I can be a real pain too, so let’s see what happens”.
“It will a tough match between Konta and Makarova – if Konta plays like she is playing right now, she can win”.
However, the 34-year-old Williams defended her decision of opting for unusual attire. And now every match it’s a battle, and, yeah, you just have to try and push yourself, like I spoke before, because it’s all a challenge.
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The busy day of action helped take the focus off corruption claims which have overshadowed the year’s first Grand Slam after a report said players had been suspected of fixing matches.
