Tennis News

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova remain on a collision course for a quarterfinal date at this year’s Australian Open. But they’ve still got some work to do before they get there. We preview their Day 5 tilts, as well as some other enticing Friday matchups, here.

Friday, Day 5
Third Round

[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Daria Kasatkina (RUS # 69)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Kasatkina was just two years old when Serena Williams won her first major.

Russia’s Daria Kasatkina is quickly making a name for herself as a future star on the WTA tour. Just two weeks ago she defeated Venus Williams in Auckland, and the 2014 French Open junior champion has now reached the third round at both Grand Slams she’s played in her career. But on Friday when she faces top-seeded Serena Williams, she’ll encounter the biggest challenge in women’s tennis. Williams, who has erased all doubts about the state of her health by breezing through her first two matches in Melbourne, is hungry to make more Grand Slam magic and very much aware of the potential of Kasatkina. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” Williams said of their impending battle. “Any time someone is beating Venus they are more than likely playing really good. So I definitely will be ready for that.”

Pick: Williams in two

[5] Maria Sharapova (RUS #5) vs. Lauren Davis (USA # 103)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Sharapova is going for her 600th career win. 

Like Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova also came to Melbourne with doubts about her health and match fitness swirling. But the five-time major champion has dropped seven games in two matches and looks to be in mid-season form ahead of her third-round showdown with hard-charging American Lauren Davis. Sharapova has never faced the Ohio native before, but at this stage of the tournament the fifth seed is more concerned about dictating with her power strokes than the opponent on the other side of the net. “I don’t think it matters [who I face],” she told reporters after her straight-sets victory over Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Wednesday. “I think my focus has to be on myself and on my game. Just improving and getting better.”

Pick: Sharapova in two

[4] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #4) vs. Monica Puig (PUR # 52)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Red-hot Radwanska has won 24 of her last 28 matches.

After an impressive takedown of surging Canadian Eugenie Bouchard in the second round things don’t promise to get any easier for No.4-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. Her next opponent, 22-year-old Puerto Rican Monica Puig, has won 10 of her last 11 matches and is into the third round of a major for the first time since 2013. After surviving a 31-ace onslaught from Kristyna Pliskova in the second round, Puig has stockpiled a pile of the belief that comes with saving five match points and gutting out an improbable win at a major. “I think it’s just about believing that you can come out of a moment like that, that at any moment you can get a second wind and come out of it,” Puig said after her marathon win on Wednesday.

Pick: Radwanska in two

[28] Kristina Mladenovic (FRA # 30) vs. Daria Gavrilova (AUS # 39)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: Gavrilova has four Top 10 wins since last March.

They have never met at the tour-level but that does not mean that France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Australia’s Daria Gavrilova don’t have history. They met in the Roland Garros Girls’ Singles final in 2009, and it was Mladenovic who got the win. “We played juniors a lot,” Gavrilova explains. “I actually lost to her at the French Open, I don’t know, ages ago. I was 15. It was in the finals. We have known each other since we were about 12.” Nearly seven years on, both players appear to be on the cusp of big-time stardom. Mladenovic reached her first major quarterfinal at last year’s US Open, while Gavrilova, who exudes fire and infectious enthusiasm for the game, has risen from outside the Top 200 to No.39 in the world in just over a year’s time.

Pick: Gavrilova in three

Around the Grounds: Belinda Bencic will look to advance to the round of 16 in Melbourne for the first time, but she’ll have to get past one of the tournament’s inspirational figures in Kateryna Bondarenko to get there. Bondarenko, who left the tour in 2012 to give birth to a child and didn’t return until 2014, is looking like she never missed a beat… Quietly, No.10-seeded Carla Suárez Navarro is working her way through the draw. The 2009 Australian Open quarterfinalist will face 19-year-old Russian Elizaveta Kulichkova for a spot in the second week… A finalist at last year’s US Open, Italy’s Roberta Vinci is alive and well in Melbourne. She’ll bid to reach the round of 16 in Melbourne for the first time against Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.

MELBOURNE, Australia – On Day 9 at the Australian Open, Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska won through to set up a semifinal clash, their first match since 2013.

Serena has her game face on: Make that 18 consecutive wins over Maria Sharapova. Serena continued her solid form through the tournament with a 6-4, 6-1 win over the No.5 seed to advance to the semifinals. The first set remained tight after Serena overcame a slow start – she’s been struggling with food poisoning – and Sharapova lost a game point serving at 4-5 in the first set on a tough-luck netcord. But Sharapova just couldn’t capitalize on her small window of opportunities and Serena ran away with it in the end.

Full match recap here.

Agnieszka Radwanska continues her Slam streak: With a 6-1, 6-3 win over Carla Suárez Navarro, Radwanska advanced to the semifinals or better at a Slam for the fifth consecutive year. Radwanska goes into the semifinal against Serena having lost just one set all season and riding a win-streak of 12 matches, dating back to her run to the title at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

“Well, in hindsight, yes, especially that you playing there only against top players, and that give me always more confidence,” Radwanska said, when asked whether the WTA Finals boosted her confidence.

“But I was saying before, this is new season, new Grand Slam; you’re starting over again. So it’s not like you winning Champs so you have easier draw or easy way to the semis.”

Serena’s perfect record: Serena has made the Australian Open semifinals six previous times. She has gone on to win the title every time. An omen?

Back to the drawing board for Sharapova: Sharapova served a career-high 21 aces in the fourth round against Belinda Bencic but tallied just 3 aces, compounded with 7 double-faults on Tuesday. Without getting any free points on her serve, Sharapova’s margin of error grew smaller. It’s a tough problem to solve.

“I think if you’re serving maybe 180kph against somebody else compared to Serena, that’s an ace. Against Serena, as we all know, the return is one of her great strengths. She’s very explosive. She stays quite close to the baseline. She cuts the ball early. She doesn’t give you many angles. That’s the reason I can’t get so many free points against her.”

“Serena’s on a different level.”: Sharapova: “It’s motivating because she’s at a different level. She makes you go back to the drawing board, not just for me, but for many other players. She makes you work. That’s inspiring.”

Sluggish Suárez Navarro can’t lock in: The Spaniard said she had trouble sleeping the last two nights and the fatigue showed on Tuesday. Her game lacked conviction and she looked a step slow on the court. She did not confirm whether the knee injury she sustained against against Daria Gavrilova had an effect.

“I didn’t rest good,” Suárez Navarro said. “I feel tired. But when you are on court you have to fight, you have to run, you have to be there, and today I don’t have the good feeling to play good tennis, the good mentality to play more aggressive or try to play a little bit better than I play.

“But I have to learn about these situations, this match, this experience. I need to learn.”

Despite the disappointment, this was a good tournament for Suárez Navarro, who lost in the first round of three of the four Slams last year (she made the third round at the French Open).

Doubles semifinals are set: No.1s Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza will play No.13 seed Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova, and No.7 seed Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka play No.15 seeds Xu Yi-Fan and Zheng Saisai.

Sharapova plans for a light February: Nothing is set in stone, but Sharapova said she plans on dedicating the month to getting her forearm healthy. She’ll travel to Moscow for Fed Cup but does not intend to play, and then, “I don’t see myself playing anything before Indian Wells.”

No, Serena hasn’t thought about the “R” word: Odd timing to ask the World No.1 this question mid-tournament after she just made the semifinals without losing a set, but Serena handled it well:

Q. Is there a chance we’re seeing you in Australia for the last time?
SERENA WILLIAMS: I don’t think so. Hopefully not. Unless you know something I don’t know.

Q. It’s a big year ahead. You have the Olympics. You’ve won four gold medals, going for your fifth. Has it entered your mind yet?
SERENA WILLIAMS: It’s entered yours, but not mine.

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