Serena Williams of the US plays a shot during her women's singles match
against Serbia's Vesna Dolonc on day three of the 2014 Australian Open
tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 15, 2014. Serena Williams kept
her cool in the scorching Melbourne heat to make the Australian Open
third round on where she was joined by hard-working fourth seed Li Na.
PHOTO | AFP
AFP
MELBOURNE
Serena
Williams kept her cool in the scorching Melbourne heat to make the
Australian Open third round on Wednesday, where she was joined by
hard-working fourth seed Li Na.
The imposing world
number one and top seed stormed through her match in oven-like
conditions on Rod Laver Arena, crushing Serbia’s Vesna Dolonc 6-1, 6-2
in just 63 minutes.
Williams is favourite ahead of
defending champion Victoria Azarenka to win a sixth Melbourne crown, and
the American reinforced her credentials with a customary performance.
Now 32, she denied being favourite added any pressure, having been in similar positions many times before.
“Well,
to me there is always pressure. It always seems like I’m one of the
favourites to win,” said Williams, who next plays experienced Slovak
Daniela Hantuchova.
“But for me, I look at it as kind
of exciting that I have an opportunity to go all the way. “But with that
being said, I have so many matches I have to win in order to do well
and in order to lift the trophy. It’s such a long way.”
The
victory was yet another landmark for the American veteran, who is
gunning to match the achievement of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova
in winning her18th Grand Slam title.
By beating Dolonc, she drew level with Margaret Court’s record of winning 60 Australian Open matches.
Williams
has now played 68 times at Melbourne Park, with only Lindsay Davenport,
on 69, having graced Australian courts more in the Open era.
WORTHY COMPETITOR
China’s Li is another serious title contender, having twice made the Melbourne final including last year when she lost to Azarenka in heart-breaking fashion after twice going down with an ankle injury.
WORTHY COMPETITOR
China’s Li is another serious title contender, having twice made the Melbourne final including last year when she lost to Azarenka in heart-breaking fashion after twice going down with an ankle injury.
While
Williams was out of the 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) heat in barely an
hour, Li was forced to stay in the sun longer after a second-set
challenge from Swiss qualifier Belinda Bencic.
The
first set was easy but the second proved to be a serious workout for the
Chinese star, who is searching for her second Grand Slam title after
the French Open in 2011.
She admitted she was not at her best in the 6-0, 7-6 (7/5) victory.
“I
cannot say I played 100 percent,” Li said. “Of course I cannot play 100
percent every day, but (I played) at least 60, 65 percent.”
Defeat
was painful for Bencic, but at just 16 the 2013 Wimbledon and French
Open junior winner said the event had been a valuable experience.
PROGRESSION
“It’s
great that I had this experience at 16, so maybe later or the next
match I can show what I learned from this experience so I will not be so
nervous and I will not miss chances,” she said.
Li next faces 26th-seeded Lucie Safarova, who came from a set down to beat fellow Czech Lucie Hradecka 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-0.
Other
players through included ninth seed Angelique Kerber and 10th seed and
former world number one Ana Ivanovic, who was in impressive form to
thrash German Annika Beck 6-1, 6-2.
The 2012 US Open
champion Sam Stosur also progressed, as did China’s Zheng Jie and local
hope Casey Dellacqua who upset Belgian 18th seed Kirsten Flipkens.
Azarenka,
gunning for her third straight Australian Open title, and third seed
Maria Sharapova play their second-round matches on Thursday.
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