World number one Williams dominated Sweden´s Johanna Larsson 6-2, 6-1 to surpass Martina Navratilova for most Grand Slam wins by a woman with 307. She’s serving pretty well both serves, playing aggressive on the return.
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Venus Williams moved within two wins of a possible sisterly showdown with Serena in the semi-finals of the U.S. Open by beating German 26th seed Laura Siegemund to reach the fourth round on Saturday.
With the new high-tech retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium slammed shut because of persistent rain, Williams swept past American compatriot Vania King 6-3 6-3 in a tidy 65 minutes to ease into the third round. If Williams wins this year’s tournament, she’ll become the first woman ever to claim 23 major titles.
The US Open hopeful outlasted 31st seed Babos 6-1 2-6 6-4 in a dramatic match.
“It was a really good match for me because she played a different type of game”, Serena added. But I see she plays normal.
“I hope I can play even better than today in the next round and reach my first quarter-final here”. It, too, would give her seven U.S. Open titles, surpassing Chris Evert’s record of six.
Other duels for places in the last 16 see men’s third seed Stan Wawrinka a two-time Grand Slam champion and a two-time semi-finalist in NY, take on 64th-ranked Briton Daniel Evans while sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori, beaten finalist in 2014, plays France’s Nicolas Mahut.
Given the polar-opposite resumes that Williams and Larsson carried into Saturday’s afternoon session in Queens, New York, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Serena made light work of her Swedish opponent. But she hardly needed superpowers to advance to the round of 16.
One of three players in the mix for the world number one ranking, Radwanska dispatched Garcia 6-2 6-3.
No. 11 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Ana Konjuh, and No. 10 Karolina Pliskova against the victor of Saturday night’s match between Williams’ older sister Venus and No. 26 Laura Siegemund.
Juan Martin Del Potro is rolling back the years, with the 2009 US Open champion into the fourth round where he will face youngster Dominic Thiem.
Radwanska will be in her Round of 16 match against Ana Konjuh on Monday. I feel safe when I’m on the court.
“That’s pretty awesome and what a place to do it, where everything first started”, said Williams who won her first grand slam title at Flushing Meadows in 1999.
From match point, the third-seeded Wawrinka fought his way back in the game despite suffering an ankle injury during the game to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (8), 6-2. “I expected long rallies”, he said after the match.
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In the years after it was revealed in 2011 Williams had the autoimmune disease Sjogren’s syndrome, she struggled often in majors.
