She had a tight first-round victory over Camila Giorgi, a much easier victory over Su-Wei Hsieh and continued her run with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over teenager Daria Kasatkina in Friday’s third round in Rod Laver Arena.
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Williams aims to win her seventh title of the Australian Open, after she won the championships of 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2015.
“Everything I’ve been trying to work on was kind of clicking today”, said the buoyant world number one, who is seeking a record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam title.
Kasatkina managed to get on the scoreboard in holding serve for 1-3 but she had no answers to Williams’ serve as the American rattled through the set in just 22 minutes.
“This is where I played my first Grand Slam right on this court and I’m still going, it’s such an honor”, said Williams, a six-time champion who has a 70-9 record at Melbourne Park.
Allertova was certainly no match for her resurgent opponent in Hisense Arena and the fact this dominant victory came just eight months after Konta lost the pair’s last meeting at the French Open, is a mark of how far the Briton has risen.
She always rallied though, other than her US Open upset defeat when she won the first set against Roberta Vinci and lost the next two.
Speaking afterwards, Sharapova said: “I felt like I made it a little bit more hard than I should have. For sure, I will prepare good and just be really excited”.
Sharapova served 16 aces but made 42 unforced errors, compared to just 34 by her 103rd-ranked opponent. Leading tennis stars Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Petra Kvitova, Ana Ivanovic, Eugenie Bouchard, Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki, Ekaterina Makarova and Garbine Muguruza show off their talent in making real life emojis faces. Fed versus his look-alike successor will start play following Sharapova vs. American Lauren Davis.
And yes, Williams was sweet enough to share an encouraging word with the youngster at the net, before paying tribute to her in the post-match address on court.
“All I can say is that I have definitely gained more experience because of the situations I have been in since”, she said.
Federer is the first male player to reach 300 wins in majors – Jimmy Connors was next-best with 233 and Andre Agassi had 224.
Having lived in Australia until she was 14 she is starting to attract a local following: ‘Australia is my birth home so it is a home for me.
Djokovic said the speculation was getting out of control.
Belgium’s David Goffin awaits Federer in round four, after he beat Dominic Thiem 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 7-5 in a match that included a generous act of sportsmanship from the Austrian.
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Kasatkina was blown away by Williams (r).
