Serena Williams stormed into the US Open quarter-finals in record-smashing style by easing past Yaroslava Shvedova 6-2 6-3 to claim her record 308th grand slam match win.
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A year ago Williams arrived at the semi-finals on the cusp of a rare calendar slam when unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci, a 300-to-1 long shot to reach the final, recorded one of the biggest upsets in grand slam tennis.
Trailing 6-5, and serving at love-40, Vinci missed her first serve, then was called for a foot fault on a second serve.
“With everyone I play, they play a step up and above their ranking”, she said. “Today on the court, she found her rhythm and took the opportunities that I gave her”.
“I’m trying to improve, of course, my mental side, because I know I need to stay focused on my game, trying to be here in this moment and not thinking about what’s happened and just thinking about the positive things”, Kerber said.
Serena said that she does not feel like herself yet when she is out there playing, but she vowed that she would surely come out soon. “As tournament progresses, I feel like I’m getting better”, Djokovic said.
In 2013, French racket manufacturer Babolat introduced the “Babolat Play” a racket that records shot data with a sensor embedded in the handle that has been used by nine-time French Open victor Rafael Nadal. “I know that I can beat everybody”.
That changed at the Australian Open in January when Kerber surprised everyone by making her first-ever Grand Slam final – and then truly shocked everyone by beating Williams for the title.
In the women’s quarterfinals, 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova easily eliminated Konjuh 6-2, 6-2 in just 57 minutes to get to the final four at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
“There will be a lot of aces in that match I think”, said Williams, who laid down 18 aces in the quarter-final win over Halep. She needed just one break in the third game to take the second set 6-4 and levelled the match at one set a piece.
At 3-all in the second set of Murray vs. Nishikori, rain interrupted play for the second time in the match. Murray defeated Nishikori in the semi-finals of the Rio Olympics last month en route to an unprecedented second consecutive singles gold medal.
After his streak of four consecutive major championships – the first time a man had done that in almost 50 years – was capped by his initial French Open title, Djokovic was upset in the third round at Wimbledon.
“I put myself in a position again to be one match away from the finals”. She is on a 10-match winning streak after entering the US Open off the Cincinnati title. She never had a break point in a 68-minute, straight-set win with 11 aces plus an awesome 93 percent first-serve percentage.
The No. 1-seeded defending champ Djokovic takes on ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, one of three French players in the quarterfinals. I definitely wanted to do some more ‘Come ons.’ I don’t know why.
“Oh, she’s ambitious”, Halep said.
NEW YORK (AP) – Karolina Pliskova came into the U.S. Open with the dubious distinction of being the only woman now ranked in the top 20 never to make a Grand Slam round of 16.
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Wozniacki is a former No. 1 who is ranked only 74th after a tough season that included injuries and zero Grand Slam match wins until last week. She was the victor of the Junior Girls’ Tournament at the 2013 US Open Championships and was already penciled for great things.
