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Dominant Serena ticks another box
NEW YORK: Serena Williams sped past another milestone Saturday en route to the US Open fourth round as men’s contenders Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka clawed their
NEW YORK: Serena Williams sped past another milestone Saturday en route to the US Open fourth round as men’s contenders Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka clawed their way into the last 16.
World number one Williams dominated Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-2, 6-1 to surpass Martina Navratilova for most Grand Slam wins by a woman with 307.
Not only has she surpassed Navratilova, she matched Roger Federer’s mark for men.
“To be up there with both men and women is something that’s super-rare, and it actually feels good,” said Williams, who said she was “really excited” to reach 307.
“I want to keep that number going higher,” added Williams, who will get her chance when she takes on Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova for a quarter-final berth.
CHALLENGE
While Williams encountered little resistance, it was another story for the top men’s seeds in action. Wawrinka, a two-time Grand Slam winner and twice a semi-finalist in New York, had the closest call, saving a match point in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(8), 6-2 victory over Britain’s Dan Evans.
The 31-year-old third seed saved the match point at 5/6 in the fourth set tiebreaker, breaking the will of his 64th-ranked opponent.
Many of Murray’s troubles against Paolo Lorenzi were of his own making as he allowed the energetic Italian journeyman to make him look ordinary through two sets before pulling himself together to win 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
“I had to stop rushing,” said Murray, who arrived at the year’s final Grand Slam off victories at Wimbledon and the Rio Olympics and may have expected less from Lorenzi, the 34-year-old who only won a first ATP title in July.
“I was making a lot of unforced errors and (Lorenzi) is very solid, and doesn’t give you cheap points,” Murray said. “I was looking for those cheap points too often.”
Murray takes on Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, a 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 winner over Portugal’s Joao Sousa, for a quarter-final berth.
Wawrinka next faces 63rd-ranked Ukrainian Illya Marchenko, who advanced when a hurting Nick Kyrgios, hobbled by a painful right hip, retired while trailing 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
NISHIKORI, DELPO WIN
Sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, two years removed from his run to the final, rallied for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win over France’s Nicolas Mahut.
Nishikori, who has dropped a set in each of his matches so far, will take on Ivo Karlovic for a quarter-final berth after the towering Croatian defeated 19-year-old American Jared Donaldson 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3.
Juan Martin del Potro, whose career was nearly derailed by injuries after his 2009 US Open triumph, fired 37 winners in a 7-6 (7/3), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer.
He next faces eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem.
