World number one Serena Williams destroyed Maria Sharapova for an 18th straight time Tuesday to inflict more pain on her long-time Russian rival and power into the Australian Open semi-finals. “Especially against a player like Jo, it’s great to win in straight sets and I thought I played a good match”.
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Sharapova and Serena Williams will meet each other in Melbourne on the night to January 26. “I got myself into the quarter-final of a Grand Slam”, said Sharapova, who has five major titles of her own.
In her fourth-round victory against No. 12 Belinda Bencic, the fifth-seeded Sharapova had a career-high 21 aces.
Despite her dismal record, Sharapova remains unfazed, insisting she is always looking to improve and that she uses the losses against the mighty American to examine what she could do better.
Williams’ dominance of the women’s game has created a gulf that is enormous between her spot at No. 1 and everyone else.
Six-time champion Williams followed it up with a 55-minute, 6-2, 6-1 win over Margarita Gasparyan.
“Well, gosh, I didn’t know she was here, I feel honored to be able to play in front of her”, Williams said when told Court was in the stands, then looked up to the VIP area and added: “Thank you”. She makes you go back to the drawing board, not just for me, but for many other players.
Djokovic, who is chasing his 11th Grand Slam title, did not surrender a set in his first three matches but needed five sets to dispatch 14th seed Gilles Simon of France.
“To be honest, when I woke up I felt quite drained, quite exhausted”, he said. 5 seed, 6-4, 6-1, in the quarterfinal round of the 2016 Australian Open on Tuesday in Melbourne.
The only potential cloud on the horizon for Williams at this stage of the tournament is her health. It dates back to 2004 when she last beat Williams in the Wimbledon final.
“I was a little lethargic (in the first set) I just started slow”. A review displayed the ball was in and Sharapova began celebrating her victory. She doesn’t give you many angles.
“It would be interesting to see how many drop shot points I won”, Djokovic said.
But that approach is what has helped win her 21 major titles, and Williams’ aggressive returns finally helped her convert on her fourth set point, following a heavy ground stroke to the net and putting away a volley. “But in this situation, I don’t have anything to lose because I’m just here – every tournament for me is just a bonus at this point in my career”.
Berdych, who is playing his sixth consecutive quarterfinal here, says: “I mean, it’s Roger, so it’s always going to be a huge challenge to play him”.
“It’s not like I think about what I can do worse”, she said of being on the wrong side of such a one-sided record.
She broke back to make it level-pegging at 2-2 as the Russian’s serve faltered.
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She has played her eight times since 2008 and lost the lot, taking just one set along the way.
