NEW YORK: Serena Williams stormed into the quarter-finals of the US Open in record-smashing style, easing past Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 6-2 6-3 to claim grand slam win number 308.
The world number one needed just 68 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium court to overwhelm the 52nd-ranked Shvedova and move past Roger Federer to the top of the all-time grand slam victories list. “Oh wow, it is really exciting, this is where it all started so it is always so magical out here for me but 308 sounds pretty good,” Williams said about her landmark win, after moving a step closer to a record seventh US Open title.
It has been another dominating run into the last eight for the 34-year-old American, who has yet to be broken and has faced just one break point in four matches while never spending more than 68 minutes on court.
Next up for Williams is fifth seed Romanian Simona Halep, who brushed past 11th-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 7-5.
Sania-Strycova sail into US Open quarters
New York, Sep 6 (PTI) Sania Mirza and Barbara Strycova produced a solid performance against Nicole Gibbs and Nao Hibino to reach the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the US Open here.
The Indo-Czech combine completed a 6-4 7-5 win over American-Japanese in the third round match played yesterday.
The seventh seeds play the top seeded French duo of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in the quarterfinals to be held later today.
Sania is the sole Indian left in the tournament after Rohana Bopanna and Leander Paes exited the competition with their respective mixed doubles partners.
Defending champion Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis had crashed out in the second round after losing to American seventh seeds, Coco Vandeweghe and Rajeev Ram.
Yesterday, Bopanna and his partner Gabriela Dabrowski fought hard before losing their mixed doubles quarterfinals.
Bopanna and Dabrowski squandered a set advantage against Canadian Robert Farah and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany before bowing out 6-1 2-6 8-10 in the super tie-breaker.
Nishikori topples giant Karlovic to reach quarters
Kei Nishikori cut down the towering Ivo Karlovic of Croatia with surgical precision in a straight-sets win that lifted the sixth-seeded Japanese to the US Open quarter-finals.
Nishikori, the US Open runner-up two years ago, beat Karlovic 6-3 6-4 7-6(4) in the final main draw singles match at Louis Armstrong Stadium, which will be replaced by a new stadium with a retractable roof for the 2018 tournament.
“It’s never easy against someone like Ivo, he has a great serve,” Nishikori said in an on-court interview. (Agencies)
