Serena Williams moved on to the quarterfinals, losing only two games in her lopsided match. The first set alone took 64 minutes.
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“Court’s lively and I like that”, said Murray. “I just wasn’t 100 percent today, and to beat Lucie or even compete against her, you need to be 100 percent”. And it kept getting worse against Goffin, a 24-year-old Belgian who is 1-20 against top-10 players.
Bencic began her match against Safarova by breaking her opponent, but Safarova broke right back to win easily and will next face either Ukrainian 14th seed Elina Svitolina or Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia in the quarter-finals.
Jankovic, a former world number one, ousted eighth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2 3-6 7-5, coming from 5-2 down in the third set.
Kyrgios made worldwide headlines last week after crude remarks concerning Wawrinka’s reported girlfriend, teenager Donna Vekic, during a match against the Swiss ace in Montreal.
Pole Jerzy Janowicz advanced over American Jared Donaldson 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
Williams kept the initiative in the second set, came in the lead with 4:3 and after recording a break in the eighth game, she managed to claim the final victory.
Williams already achieved the “Serena Slam” by winning every Grand Slam title this past year from the U.S. Open, Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. “I just hope it will get better and I’m sure I will be fit very soon – now I still need to talk with the team and decide what to do”. “Yeah, so I look forward to that”. The 12th-ranked Bencic said it’s too soon to know if she will play in next week’s tournament at New Haven, Connecticut.
“I think it could be a lot better”, she said. The Serb has struggled with an elbow injury of late but he said that he is free of pain her in Cincinnati.
“It was a odd match all in all, but the instructions I got from the coach was to expect the unexpected, and that was the case”, Djokovic said.
Williams revealed it “hasn’t been easy” since her sister and fellow champion Venus was diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, a condition that affects the immune system, in 2011.
Victoria Azarenka became the fourth woman to withdraw from the tournament when she had to quit her evening match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Williams is the first player to reach 45 match wins on the year – she’s 45-2 overall now.
He then opened up a double-break advantage and a 3-0 lead, and seemed to be on the brink of a major upset.
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Schmiedlova, who defeated 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska, has capitalised on Maria Sharapova’s withdrawal from the bottom section of the draw. It’s a tough decision to make.
