Serena dances into 3rd round in Melbourne
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA >> Serena Williams powered her way into the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Slovenian Tamara Zidansek on Wednesday with an erratic performance before crediting her love of dancing for helping keep training fun.
After becoming frustrated with her error count on Rod Laver Arena, the 23time Grand Slam champion was in a much lighter mood after organizers played a viral video of her performing a vibrant hip-hop routine during her postmatch interview.
“I always dance. I’m not the best dancer, but I love dance,” Williams told reporters. “It’s nice and fun to do. It’s different. It’s better than just going to the gym every day.”
The video, which first made its way online in November, also featured American teenage sensation Coco Gauff who spent time training with compatriot Williams during the offseason.
The 38-year-old, who is bidding for a record-equalling 24th major title, was dominant in the first set against Zidansek, wrapping up the opener in just over half an hour.
But the 70th-ranked Slovenian defended impressively in the second set, saving seven break points as Williams racked up the mistakes, ending the match with 28 unforced errors.
Zidansek, however, could not keep up the resistance and Williams clinched victory with a cross-court forehand winner to set up a meeting with China’s Wang Qiang.
Looking ahead, Williams said she hoped to play at the Tokyo Olympics in July but acknowledged stiff competition with seven U.S. women vying for four available Games’ berths.
“Yeah, it’s a lot of Americans,” she said. “We’ll see. Hopefully I can make it. If not, it’s not the end of the world. I’ve played a lot of Olympics, so it will be good.”
• Bob and Mike Bryan have started their farewell to Grand Slam doubles with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 first-round win over Rohan Bopanna and Yasutaka Uchiyama at the Australian Open.
The 41-year-old American twins who went to Stanford have won six Australian Open doubles championships among their record 16 major titles together. The most accomplished men’s doubles team in history, the Bryans announced late last year that they planned to retire after the 2020 U.S. Open.
• Roger Federer collected his 99th Australian Open victory and reached the third round in Melbourne for the 21st time with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 win over Filip Krajinovic of Serbia. The sixtime Australian champion improved to 41-0 in the first two rounds here, finishing the one-hour, 32-minute victory with 14 aces, seven service breaks, 42 winners and just 14 unforced errors.
• Defending champion and No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia advanced in straight sets, finishing with almost as many aces (16) as unforced errors (17) in a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Japan’s Tatsuma Ito. He won 93 percent (43 of 46) of his first-serve points.
• Tennys Sandgren upset eighth-seeded Matteo Berrettini of Italy in five sets to reach the third round. Sandgren is ranked only 100th.
He wasted a two-sets-tonone lead against 2019 U.S. Open semifinalist Berrettini but managed to pull out the victory by a score of 7-6 (7), 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 7-5.
Up next for Sandgren is an all-American matchup against Sam Querrey.
• Three-time major semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov was eliminated by 22-yearold American Tommy Paul in a second-round match that went to a fifth-set tiebreaker. Paul had never won a Grand Slam match until this week. He is ranked 80th.
But he built a two-sets-tonone lead against the 18thseeded Dimitrov, gave that lead away, was two points from defeat and then pulled out the victory.
Weather plagued the season-opening major Thursday (Australia time) at Melbourne Park and caused yet more disruptions on Day 4, when twotime major winner Garbine Muguruza had to wait for the roof to be closed on Rod Laver Arena before completing her 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 second-round win over Ajla Tomljanovic.
In the other completed singles matches, sixthseeded Belinda Bencic and Donna Vekic advanced to the third round.
U.S. Open semifinalist Bencic beat 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 7-5, 7-5, and 19thseeded Vekic had a 6-4, 6-2 win over Alize Cornet.