There will be just one Williams sister in the U.S. Open women’s quarterfinals.
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“I don’t know. We’ll see”, Williams said during her on-court interview after reaching the U.S. Open quarterfinals by beating Yaroslava Shvedova 6-2, 6-3 on Monday.
“But even if I’m not feeling great, I still manage to get a good fight in out there”.
Williams was never seriously challenged in a 6-2, 6-3 victory over 52nd-ranked Yaroslava Shvedova as she extended her career record over the Kazakh to 5-0.
Williams, meanwhile, still has work to do at Flushing Meadows as she pursues another mark: most Grand Slam singles titles in the Open era, which began in 1968.
She has reached the business end of the tournament without dropping a set or indeed even dropping her serve. “I definitely never thought I would be playing still”.
The result for Konjuh, the 2013 US Open junior champion, saw her become the first Croatian woman in history to progress to the quarter-finals at the final Grand Slam of the year.
Halep has lost seven of eight matches against Williams but hopes that will at least keep the pressure off in their quarter-final.
No 5 seed Halep is next in her line of sight but the Romanian is adopting a “nothing to lose” attitude against Williams, who hasn’t dropped her serve in the tournament.
“I just said to myself stay in the game don’t rush”, Konjuh said.
“I just feel like I’m going out there doing what I need to do”, Williams told reporters. Williams didn’t play as well as she could have though, as she only converted on three of her eight break point attempts.
The dream semi-final between Serena and her sister Venus was however brought crashing down as Venus was defeated by Karolina Pliskova after a super match. Incredibly, Serena has faced one break point in her four matches.
The world number one moved past Roger Federer and into rarefied air at the top of the standings with 308 grand slam victories.
Radwanska could face Williams in the semifinals, though she has to reach the quarterfinals first. So when a couple of errors from Shvedova opened up a door for a break to push her second set lead to 4-2, Serena converted it, snatching the only break she needed and going on to close it out three games later.
Kerber will try to take the next step on Tuesday in a quarterfinal clash with 2015 finalist Roberta Vinci, the seventh seed from Italy.
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The seventh-seeded Italian stunned Williams in the semi-finals past year before falling to compatriot Flavia Pennetta in the final.
