Faultless Johanna Konta eases through to round three at Australian Open

Elsewhere, fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska reeled off nine straight games to floor Monica Puig 6-4, 6-0, despite continuing pain from a left-leg injury that stopped her competing in Sydney last week.

The strategy, however, proved disastrous as the world number two won 31 out of Groth’s 46 ventures to the net and broke his opponent’s serve seven times in total.

She made the third round in last year’s USA open, and despite the 6-1, 6-1 loss to Williams, this equalled her best grand slam outing.

“I really love this crowd, and it all started here; this is where I played my first Grand Slam, right here on this court”, she added.

Grigor Dimitrov has struggled to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 win over Marco Trungelliti of Argentina in a second-round match at Melbourne Park.

Despite producing another double-fault and allowing Williams two break points in the fourth, Kasatkina fought hard to hold her serve and claim her first game in the match. For this match, the sun will not be an issue at all, as she opens up the night session at 7 PM. She mixes up the ball well. I thought she played really well at Wimbledon.

With second favourite Simona Halep already out, it means the most fancied players in Konta’s quarter are now Karolina Pliskova, Ana Ivanovic and Madison Keys – all top 20 opponents but not unbeatable. We want to see it grow, ‘ she said.

“I think I played well”.

One of Konta’s strengths has been looking forward and treating each new match as a completely new day, and after losing a heart-breaker of a first round match to Allertova previous year at the French Open including a staggering 19-17 score in their first set tie-break!

Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic put aside thoughts of the match-fixing scandal surrounding tennis to progress into the next round.

“All I can say is that I have definitely gained more experience because of the situations I have been in since”, she said.

2008 champion Maria Sharapova, playing in her second match of the season, moved past Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-2, 6-1. “I wasn’t here”, Williams said.

“I think I played well today, ” she said.

“I’m just happy I was able to deal with it the best I could and come through”.

Williams always has an edge about her during a major and she bristled when asked if she had ever watched her defeat in the US Open semi-finals a year ago by Roberta Vinci (who is still in this draw).

Konta, fresh from her first-round dismantling of Venus Williams in Rod Laver Arena, found herself back on the peripheral Court 8 in Melbourne Park but it made little difference as the world number 47 cruised through 6-2 6-3. But her first win at the tournament suggests Williams is ready to defend her Australian Open title this year.