Super Serena Seals 307th Slam Win
NEW YORK, NY, USA – Top seed Serena Williams eased to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Connecticut Open semifinalist Johanna Larson to not only advance into the second week of the US Open for the sixth straight year, but also clinch the Open Era record for total Grand Slam matches won, passing Martina Navratilova for 307 victories.
“Wow, that’s pretty awesome, and honestly, there’s no better place to do it than here, where everything first started,” she told ESPN’s Rennae Stubbs in her on-court interview. “That’s great!
“It was something I didn’t even know about until Wimbledon,” she added in her post-match press conference. “I was like, ‘Oh, I have a new goal.'”
Looking as strong as ever through three rounds, the World No.1 donned her “Superwoman sleeves” and shook off the shoulder concerns that plagued her Emirates Airline US Open Series with another decisive win, this time over an in-form Johanna Larsson.
Six sets played, six sets won.@serenawilliams dispatches #Larsson to move safely into week two. #usopen @MBUSA https://t.co/a2JWJ56Rpy
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2016
Larsson had just reached the semifinals in New Haven as a lucky loser, but had no answers to the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s high-octane game. Hitting 24 winners to just 17 unforced errors, Serena struck another six aces and dropped only five points behind her first serve to advance in just under an hour on Saturday.
“It was a really good match for me because she played a different type of game. It was really good for me to have a different type of rhythm and just to move around. Overall, it was pretty good.”
Awaiting Serena in the fourth round will be Kazakh powerhouse Yaroslava Shvedova, who survived a late surge from China’s Zhang Shuai to reach the second week of the Open for the first time, 6-2, 7-5.
Serena has won all four of her previous meetings with Shvedova; though the former World No.25 pushed the top seed to three sets at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, their last two meetings have been one-sided affairs, including a 6-3, 6-1 win at the 2013 US Open.
