Serena bested Johanna Larsson of Sweden, 6-2, 6-1 in their third round matchup.
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Larsson, who matched her previous best from 2014 by making it this far in NY, could not live with her American opponent and saw two losses of serve in the second set cost any chance of a major upset.
The 31-year-old third seed saved the match point at 5/6 in the fourth set tiebreaker, breaking the will of his 64th-ranked opponent.
This is a good section of the draw and both players will fancy their chances of winning this match, and the victor of this intriguing fourth round encounter will face fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska or Ana Konjuh in the quarterfinals. “It was an unbelievable fight tonight”, Wawrinka said, adding that he was “lucky” to survive. Del Potro took apart David Ferrer in straight sets, icing on what has been a season of success for the 6-foot-6 Argentine.
Men’s second seed Andy Murray, the Wimbledon and Olympic champion, takes on Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the quarter-finals.
Angelique Kerber, the No. 2 seed, could overtake Williams at No. 1 if the two meet in the final (seemingly a probability) and Kerber wins.
And most disconcerting for the remaining field is the sense that Williams, Saturday’s masterclass notwithstanding, has only scratched the surface of her potential so far.
Donaldson, who was raised in Rhode Island but is living and training in Irvine, won’t turn 20 until October and will break into the world’s top 100 by reaching the third round here. Halep will play the No. 11 seed Carla Suárez Navarro in the fourth round. No. 5 Milos Raonic of Canada and No. 7 Marin Cilic of Croatia exited on the men’s side, Garbine Muguruza of Spain on the women’s side.
Williams is the star attraction every day she plays at Flushing Meadows.
Pliskova began her quest for her first Grand Slam singles title against 17-year-old American wildcard Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-3 and in the second round, she defeated Paraguayan qualifier Montserrat Gonzalez, 6-1, 7-5.
Williams next plays Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova. When Venus is in that kind of form, she really is unstoppable. “Between those two, you can’t beat ’em”. In 2015 she made two quarterfinals and this year reached the semis at Wimbledon while working her way back up to No. 6 in the WTA rankings.
Still, Serena Williams said she was not quite at her best.
Larsson predicted that Serena’s journey will get more hard in the later rounds. Williams did, however, smack one backhand return victor in the final game. “That’s great because I’m seeing I can be unsafe in the future once again”.
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.
“I feel OK”, Williams said.
“After the match he had a couple days ago, to come out and move like he did and work as hard as he did out there shows that’s a huge quality of his and it gets you a long way”, Murray said. This should be a rather quick match for the American.
With her superhero sleeves and dominating performances, Williams may not be helpful to the other women in her draw when she is on court. “I’m just very happy to just be playing at a really good level, my best level”.
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“[My shoulder] definitely feels solid”.
