Tennis News

It’s another milestone week for the WTA with Serena Williams hitting 157 consecutive weeks at No.1, passing Martina Navratilova for the second-longest streak at No.1 in WTA history.

Williams’ streak began in 2013 after defeating Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open; the American hadn’t been ranked No.1 in over two years after a foot injury and pulmonary embolism left her very career in question. Overcoming incredible adversity, a near-perfect 2012 season the the stage for the now-21-time Grand Slam champion to take back No.1 from Victoria Azarenka just over three years ago; she hasn’t reliquished the top spot since.

During this latest reign at No.1, Williams has won six major titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments – including two French and US Open titles – and remains one major victory away from tying Steffi Graff, who not only holds the Open Era record at 22 Grand Slam titles, but also has the longest streak for consecutive weeks at No.1 (186 weeks).

MELBOURNE, Australia – Top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic overcame a sluggish start to defeat home hopes Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua on Tuesday night.

In the last of the quarterfinals, Barty and Dellacqua briefly looked liked springing an upset before the French turned the match on its head to run out 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 winners.

Barty and Dellacqua were finalists at their home major four years ago and, as they had against Martina Hingis and CoCo Vandeweghe the previous round, lit up the Rod Laver Arena with some sparkling tennis early on.

However, the favorites began to turn the tide midway through the second set, producing two clean winners to break Barty’s serve for a 4-2 lead. From this point on it was one-way traffic, Garcia and Mladenovic easing into a maiden Melbourne park semifinal, where they will face No.12 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai.

Garcia and Mladenovic could reach the top of the rankings by reaching the final, but they will have their work cut out against Hlavackova and Peng, impressive 7-5, 7-6(5) winners over No.3 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.

On the other side of the draw reigning World No.1 Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her partner Lucie Safarova laid down a marker by swatting aside No.11 seeds Raquel Atawo and Xu Yifan, 6-1, 6-1, in under an hour. Their reward is a meeting with the draw’s surprise package, Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato, after they overcame Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Andrea Petkovic, 6-3, 6-3.