The world number one spent just 44 minutes on court in the landslide victory on Rod Laver Arena.
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The second set followed the same pattern as Konta raced ahead 2-0 and, unlike in her opening two rounds, there was no late wobble as she sealed victory with a forehand pass in just over an hour. That is the third-longest streak in WTA history after Steffi Graf’s 186 in a row and Martina Navratilova’s 156. Konta will meet the Russian No21 seed, Ekaterina Makarova, after she eliminated No9 seed Karolina Pliskova.
Sharapova’s 600th career win sets her up with a tough test next up against 12th seed Belinda Bencic, after the unsafe Swiss teen beat Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko. “She made the quarter-finals of her first tournament, the final of her second and then had a good match against Agnieszka Radwanska (in the second round of the Australian Open)”.
Yesterday, after Konta reached the last 16, the on-court interviewer insisted she had traces of an Australian accent. So if you had 6-4, 75, they were like, What’s going on?
The nationality of Sydney-born Briton Johanna Konta continues to cause fascination at the Australian Open, with even the Internet seeming to think she’s Australian. Puig didn’t win another game after that.
After upsetting Venus Williams in her opening round match, Johanna Konta said she had no intentions of switching allegiance back to Australia but there was no cold shoulder from the crowd at Hisense Arena on Saturday.
“I think playing that aggressive on return really gave me a little bit more freedom playing on my serve, as well”, said Azarenka after the win over world number 54 Kovinic.
Kasatkina won her first game a lot earlier than she did in the set before. She pulled out a jar of almond butter and ate a couple spoonfuls before starting the third set.
Not capitalising on two break point opportunities did not deter Williams, who held her serve to love in the next game. “I’m very much just in the here and now”. The stadium announcer said play would be suspended until medical teams could fully assist an injured spectator.
It’s a constant refrain you hear from the top players: the quality of No. 50 today far exceeds the quality of No. 50 five years ago.
After producing one of the biggest upsets ever in women’s tennis, Vinci lost in the final to fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta.
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Other players with more tenuous links have been “adopted”, including Belgian four-times grand slam champion Kim Clijsters, who was affectionately known as “Aussie Kim” due to her relationship with local champion Lleyton Hewitt. Djokovic, who won three Grand Slam tournaments in 2015 and has 11 titles overall, said that with this kind of success comes lofty expectations.
