Williams dominated Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-2, 6-1. The win is even more impressive when you consider Venus is 36, the oldest player in the women’s draw. A year ago, Serena beat Venus in the quarterfinals. We’re sure she will give her all though, and it would be a big surprise should she lose.
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Serena has yet to drop a set this tournament and has lost just 15 games overall in her first three matches. That was in 1998 – the first year that she entered.
Monday’s other fourth-round women’s matchups will be No. 5 Simona Halep vs. “Obviously, I don’t feel like I’m Serena out there yet, but hopefully she’ll come around the second week”. She’s serving pretty well both serves, playing aggressive on the return.
Williams will go for number 308 and a step closer to what would be a record seventh US Open title when she meets Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, a 6-2 7-5 victor over China’s Zhang Shuai, in round four.
Andy Murray was the defending champion in 2014 when his 23-year-old opponent swept him out of Wimbledon. Venus Williams responds with another two-win burst for a lead 4-1. Williams is 4-0 career against Shvedova.
“It feels good to have won the match … it was really tough”. But, for this, we all have to wait for the upcoming clashes of Serena in the 136th edition of US OPEN.
Sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, two years removed from his run to the final, rallied for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win over Frances Nicolas Mahut.
The media wing talked to her after reaching this landmark.
That said, Larsson did apply a bit of pressure and almost secured the tournament’s first break against Serena when the world No. 1 was ad-out up 3-1 in the first set. Karolina Pliskova was able to save three of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s six break point opportunities.
“Wow. That’s pretty awesome and honestly what a better place to do it than here, where it all started”, Williams told the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd.
A third British man, Dan Evans, came within a point of also making the fourth round but failed to complete what would have been a significant upset, fading in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (8), 6-2 loss to No. 3 Stan Wawrinka.
“It’s always good to win by saving match-point”. She had a half-dozen aces, bringing her tournament total to 31. But she hardly needed superpowers to advance to the round of 16. Konjuh finished with four of five break point conversions against Varvara Lepchenko. Venus would not only have to get past Pliskova, but likely No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska as well.
Last year, the pressure of trying to complete the calendar year Grand Slam was nearly overwhelming; this time, she is more relaxed and the shoulder problems she had coming into the event seem to be holding up. His best result at a major event this year was reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
What do we know now that the first week of the U.S. Open trundled to a close, as the “day matches” seeped into the night-time hours Saturday?
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She will play Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in the fourth round.
