Venus Williams has moved within two wins of a possible sisterly showdown with Serena in the semi-finals of the US Open by beating German 26th seed Laura Siegemund to reach the fourth round.
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Serena’s victory over Johanna Larsson in the third round was a record 307th grand slam match win for her.
It was at Flushing Meadows where Williams won her first grand slam in 1999 and 17 years later it is where she could achieve two more career landmarks if she can reach the winner’s circle again on September 10.
Williams won the first three games of the first set, and Larsson could never find a break, as the world number one cantered out to the lead.
“Wow. That’s pretty awesome and honestly what a better place to do it than here, where it all started”, Williams told an adoring Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd.
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. That was pretty cool for me.
But while Williams, wearing a shoulder-baring white dress with cut-off fluorescent pink sleeves that she likened to Wonder Woman, was merely commanding in the opener, the world No1 found another gear altogether to close the show.
A Williams victory would keep her at the top of the pile and see her beat Graf’s record of 186 consecutive weeks at No. 1.
Speaking of Connors, 37-year-old Ivo Karlovic is the oldest man to make the round of 16 at a major since that magical 1991 run.
After the match, Halep said she wasn’t able to move well because of a back problem.
In the men’s draw, 2015 French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland survived a scare as he saved match point before edging past Britain’s Dan Evans in five sets.
Murray advanced to a fourth-round clash with 22nd seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, a 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victor over Joao Sousa of Portugal. Shvedova is best known for the first “golden set” in the Open era, which began in 1968: She won all 24 points of the first set of a victory over Sara Errani at Wimbledon in 2012, one match before a three-set loss to Williams there.
“My shoulder definitely feels solid”, Williams said.
“I think what I liked most here was that feeling of the crowd at the end”, said Venus on court afterward, to the roar of the partisan fans. “I expected long rallies, I’m just disappointed with the amount of errors I made”, Murray said.
“It was something I didn’t even know about until Wimbledon”, Williams said of her Grand Slam milestone, per WTATennis.com. Down two sets to one against Illya Marchenko, Nick Kyrgios called the trainer for the second time and then this.
Fifth-seeded Simona Halep faces No. 11 Carla Suarez Navarro in the other women’s match.
Radwanska eased into the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over France’s Caroline Garcia.
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Serena Williams faced Sweden’s Larsson, who she had beaten in straight sets in both previous meetings. Serena Williams and Yaroslava Shvedova’s last match was four years ago, with Williams defeating Shvedova in the round of sixty-four of the 2014 Miami Masters.
