Top-seeded Serena Williams continued her dominance through the first week of the U.S. Open and added a piece of history to her name by eliminating Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-2, 6-1 in her third-round match at NY on Saturday.
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The sight of yet another Williams blowout victory over yet another overmatched opponent – Saturday’s 60-minute 6-2, 6-1 annihilation of Sweden’s Johanna Larsson in the U.S. Open third round in Arthur Ashe Stadium a case in point – makes it easy not to appreciate properly her incredible accomplishments and sustained greatness.
Venus, who is the sixth seed at the US Open this year, had a trouble in her first match against Kateryna Koslova, just edging past the Ukrainian 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in a thrilling match.
To be up there with both men and women is something thats super-rare, and it actually feels good, said Williams, who said she was really excited to reach 307.
Williams, a seven-times grand slam singles victor and twice U.S. Open champion, has enjoyed some recent success, reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the final at Stanford.
Serena is also just few step away from achieving another feat to reach an Open Era record of 23 Grand Slam titles – and Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24.
Williams revealed she first heard about Navratilova’s 307 grand slam singles wins at Wimbledon and says she takes great satisfaction in surpassing it. “It was really good for me to have a different type of rhythm and just move the ball around”.
Williams will push for win number 308 when she plays Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova on Tuesday. ‘I feel like I made a lot of errors but there’s nothing I can do about that now.
It took three sets for Simona Halep to advance to the fourth round. “It’s something I didn’t even know about until Wimbledon – it was like a new goal”.
“It definitely feels solid”, Williams said of her shoulder.
After that match, an exhausted Williams sighed, “A win’s a win”, revealing more and more what an emotionally debilitating pursuit the chase for the Grand Slam was becoming. Will Halep’s narrow escape fuel her belief when she faces the proven veteran Carla Suárez Navarro for a spot in the quarterfinals?
The 11th-seeded Spaniard’s 6-4, 6-3 victory over the 20th-seeded Vesnina marks the third time she has reached the fourth round or better at Flushing Meadows.
This year, Williams looks much more at ease. Can she go all the way and win the US Open?
The unseeded Del Potro, who was handed a wildcard to the event after a number of years curtailed by injury, downed Spain’s David Ferrer 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-3.
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The hard-hitting Czech, who shocked Angelique Kerber in the final of the US Open tuenup in Cincinnati, defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-4.
