Williams marches into quarter-finals
Venus Williams is into the quarterfinals of the ASB Classic after an impressive 6-4 6-3 victory over wildcard recipient Lauren Davis last night in Auckland.
It was the battle between two former champions of this tournament, but that didn’t mean these two players met on level terms.
Williams was the red hot favourite to take this match as Davis has done little on the circuit since claiming the Auckland title in 2017.
There was less of the intensity in this match than there was in Williams’ first round win over another former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka and this match was all about seeing how good Williams would be, rather than witnessing an epic contest.
Williams said she found Davis a tough opponent, even though she had a good idea how she’d play against her.
"There were no easy points there, she really hits the ball hard and I knew that was going to happen," Williams said.
"The winners came out of nowhere and I was really happy to have played well against her."
The victory takes Williams’s record at the Classic to 11 wins and three losses, but it’s the first time since 2015 that she’s made it to the quarterfinals.
Davis was never going to overpower Williams or blast her off the court with winners.
She needed to get everything back, play like a wall keep the ball deep and frustrate the 38-year-old into making mistakes.
But she also tried to play aggressive, when there was a chance of hitting a winner or taking control of a point Davis went for it.
However, overall Williams was just too good. Her powerful backhand and well angled shots.
It wasn’t vintage Williams, but it was good enough to beat a player ranked 173 in the world, who only won three matches in 2018 at tournaments the level of the Classic or higher.
Two of those victories were at the Australian Open, almost 12 months ago. Williams was up 5-2 in the opening set and had a set point with Davis serving at in the next game.
But Davis went on a march to win the next two games, but Williams took the set when she hit just wide with a backhand facing a break point.
Williams got a break in the second game of the next set and in the next game play was suspended as light rain fell.
At the resumption Williams quickly went 3-0 up and there was no stopping her from there. On match point Davis was stretched out wide and put a forehand into the net, with Williams putting a fist into the air moments later. Returned New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill appeared anything but out of touch as he and his team-mates plundered runs against Sri Lanka in Mount Maunganui last night.
The Black Caps opener hadn’t played for the national side for 10 months due to injury and admitted prior to play at Bay Oval that he ‘‘may be a bit rusty’’. Instead, he flourished by making 138 – his 14th ODI century – as New Zealand reached an imposing 371-7 from their 50 overs.
Guptill and captain Kane Williamson (74) formed a partnership of 163 which fell short of New Zealand’s ODI best for the second wicket of 179 between Williamson and Neil Broom against Bangladesh in Nelson in December 2016. Guptill – who has a career-best 237 not out in ODIs, made in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal against the West Indies in Wellington – batted for 42.2 overs.
He thumped five sixes and 11 fours in facing 139 balls in front of a healthy Bay Oval crowd on a warm afternoon.
Ross Taylor added a rapid 54 off 37 balls after Williamson’s departure before the recalled Jimmy Neesham smote five sixes in the penultimate over as he blazed his way to 47 not out off 13 balls.
Neesham hit the five sixes, a two and a single in an over from Thisara Perera that included a no-ball that enlivened the crowd.
It was an innings that will have done his World Cup selection chances no harm at all.
● Meanwhile the Black Caps resembled the All Blacks when they began their home ODI season. A new one-day outfit for the New Zealand cricket side features a white collar on a black shirt - reminiscent of the traditional garb of the national rugby side before collars disappeared - and white piping, with black trousers.
The Black Caps have sported a host of different coloured clothing for one-day internationals over the past decades - including the famed beige of the early 1980s along with teal and blue.
● Cheteshwar Pujara’s third century of the series has lifted India to 4-303 at stumps on day one of the fourth test in Sydney, where Australia failed to strike with the second new ball.
Pujara finished 130 not out at stumps yesterday, when his highest score of a career-best series significantly boosted India’s bid for a maiden test series win in Australia.