Williams sets up Sharapova tie
“I had no that I was playing her next”, Williams said. ‘She is an aggressive player, and I knew I had to be ready.’ Sharapova had a much taller task.
In a rematch of last year’s final, once again Maria Sharapova will have to answer the question, “Can you beat Serena Williams?”.
As for Sharapova, Williams said she hadn’t looked at the draw to see who would be next, but noted that the five-time major victor “had a really good win today … it will be a good match”.
The 2008 Australian Open victor sent down 21 aces in her 7-5 7-5 win over Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic – and has a table-topping 52 in the tournament.
Williams’ dominance of the women’s game has created an enormous gulf her at No 1 and everyone else.
“I just feel like I’m really confident in my game right now, not against her or against any other opponent, I’m just really looking at me right now”, she said. “If I can just continue to play well, then it could be good”. “It’s the first time in my career at the Australian Open where I’ve played three times in a row under the roof”. If Bencic is the star of women’s tennis in the future, now at the top are Masha and Serena Williams.
“Sometimes you have a brain freeze, if I can call it that”, Djokovic said, explaining how he wasn’t in rhythm and was trying to finish off points quickly.
Federer, meanwhile, will be casting wary glances at his opponent Tomas Berdych, who is riding a wave of confidence and has a score to settle.
Novak Djokovic survived a frustrating five-setter against Gilles Simon at the Australian Open on Sunday, spraying 100 unforced errors on Rod Laver Arena before reaching the quarterfinals for the 27th consecutive Grand Slam. “I’ll look forward to playing the best in the world and it’ll be a great match”. “I hope nothing serious is wrong with her, that it’s just cramps”. “I think the biggest thing is he doesn’t miss”, Nishikori said on Djokovic.
That Court’s presence would go unnoticed by Serena is hardly surprising, for maintaining such dominance at age 34 all comes down to the world No.1’s single-minded approach.
Sharapova was the first of the decorated duo, who have won 26 Grand Slam titles between them, to hold up their end of the bargain.
Radwanska will now meet either Spain’s Carla Suarez-Navarro or Australia’s Daria Gavrilova in the last eight.
World number one and defending champion Serena Williams smacked down Margarita Gasparyan to sweep into an Australian Open quarter-final against Maria Sharapova on Sunday.
Fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanksa has advanced to the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park with a 6-7 (6), 6-1, 7-5 win over Anna-Lena Friedsam, who suffered from severe cramping and was in tears for the last two games. Sunday in Melbourne, that veteran attitude helped her take down Bencic.
“Yeah, but every match is new”, Williams said. Sharapova is riding a 17 match losing streak that dates back some 12 years.
The seventh-seeded Nishikori, the 2014 US Open finalist, also reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open past year and in 2012.
Kei Nishikori is the first male player through to the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park, defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in front of a hugely partisan crowd filled with flag-waving Japanese fans.
She dropped just five games in her previous two matches and surrendered only one more against Gasparyan, breaking her on the fourth and sixth games with her phenomenal serve keeping her in command.