Williams and Osaka through to quarter finals

SERENA Williams and Naomi Osaka both survived close battles to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open while Simona Halep gained revenge on Iga Swiatek.

Third seed and title favourite Osaka, pictured, saved two match points on her way to a 4-6 6-4 7-5 victory over last year’s runner-up Garbine Muguruza before Williams battled to a 6-4 2-6 6-4 win against Aryna Sabalenka.

Seventh seed Sabalenka has been one of the form players of the last few months. She fought back from 1-4 to draw level in the final set but Williams was too strong in the end.

The 39-year-old is now again within touching distance of a recordequalling 24th grand slam singles title.

Williams next faces Halep, who was beaten heavily by Swiatek as the Polish teenager swept to her first grand slam title at the French Open but turned the tables to win 3-6 6-1 6-4.

Williams leads their head-to-head record 9-2 but Halep produced one of the great recent grand slam final performances to win their last meeting at Wimbledon in 2019.

“The game, I think it was one of the best in my life,” said the Romanian. “The best day actually of my life. I felt very confident back then. I felt every ball. We played so many times. I know what to expect. I will just try to do my game, and I will be confident.”

Osaka hung on against Muguruza, who was full of confidence after a strong start to the season. The Spaniard led by a set and a break and held two match points at 5-3 in the deciding set only for Osaka, the 2019 champion in Melbourne, to pull off a run of four games in a row.

Osaka credited a brief moment of temper for clearing her mind, saying: “There was a moment when I got angry and hit my racket on the ground. I feel like I released a lot of the thoughts I had. It just made me go more into instinct-based tennis.”

Osaka will next face the highly unconventional Hsieh Su-wei, who at 35 became the oldest player to reach a first slam quarter-final in the Open era with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Marketa Vondrousova.

Hsieh came close to beating Osaka at the Australian Open in 2019 and, asked what makes her challenging to play, the third seed said with a laugh: “Have you watched her play? It’s like, ‘What’? She’s one of those players that, for me, if it was a video game, I would want to select her character just to play as her. Because my mind can’t fathom the choices she makes when she’s on the court. It’s so fun to watch. It’s not fun to play, but it’s really fun to watch.”