Williams sisters, Murray, del Potro lead lineup at US Open

Williams’ second-round win over fellow American Vania King brought her level with Martina Navratilova’s record of 306 grand slam wins. “I knew at Wimbledon that I wanted to get there”.

The win marked Williams’ first match under the new roof of the Arthur Ashe stadium, which was closed all day after early showers that disrupted play on the outside courts.

‘That was pretty cool for me.

Serena also tied the record for the most consecutive weeks at No.1 with German legend Steffi Graf and admitted to using Cup Therapy as a mode of relaxation.

Although Williams has looked in good condition here so far, not dropping a set yet, Williams admitted afterwards that she is still undergoing therapy on the shoulder injury which forced her to pull out of Cincinnati last month. I was really excited to reach that. “It was really good for me to have a different type of rhythm and just to move around”.

“Wow. That’s pretty awesome, and honestly what a better place to do it than here, where everything first started”, Williams said after the match.

World number two Andy Murray, vying to become just the fourth man to reach all four Grand Slam finals in a calendar year, takes on Italian journeyman Paolo Lorenzi. “It’s constant.” Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who could yet overtake Williams as world number one this fortnight, plays Caroline Garcia of France while sixth seed Venus Williams meets Germany’s Laura Siegemund.

“I don’t know how I came back”, Halep said.

Halep, who fell in the semi-finals to eventual champion Flavia Pennetta previous year, will play Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro for place in the quarter-finals.

Fifth-seeded Belgian Simona Halep narrowly avoided a third-round upset with a 6-1 2-6 6-4 win over Hungary’s Timea Babos to keep her US Open title hopes alive.

But there will be more singles competition for American player Varvara Lepchenko.

Other duels for places in the last 16 see men’s third seed Stan Wawrinka a two-time Grand Slam champion and a two-time semi-finalist in NY, take on 64th-ranked Briton Daniel Evans while sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori, beaten finalist in 2014, plays France’s Nicolas Mahut.