Serena slams Maria book before clash
drawing level at two sets apiece with an ace.
Despite calling on a trainer to treat blisters on his left toes before the start of the fifth set, the world number three zipped around with ease to break in the opening game of the decider and finished off the 38thranked Russian after three-and-ahalf hours of pulsating action.
He will next play seventh seed Dominic Thiem who ended Kei Nishikori’s comeback to reach the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4 victory.
The Austrian seventh seed, the last man to beat claycourt machine Rafa Nadal on his favourite surface, displayed an impressive arsenal of weapons in the first two sets before regaining his composure after the loss of the third.
Japanese 19th seed Nishikori, on the comeback trail after he ended his 2017 season in midyear because of injury, seemed to lose interest in the match in the second set but eventually managed to put up a decent fight.
Juan Martin del Potro, meanwhile fired a menacing warning to those already writing Rafael Nadal’s name on the French Open title with a bludgeoning 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 third-round defeat of Spanish claycourter Albert Ramos-vinolas on Saturday. Serena Williams turned up the heat ahead of her French Open clash with bitter rival Maria Sharapova, saying the claims about her in the Russian’s book were “hearsay” and not “necessarily true”. Sharapova, who Williams has beaten 18 times in a row, claimed in her recent memoir ‘Unstoppable’ that Serena “hated” her for hearing her cry after the 2004 Wimbledon final.
The fourth-round match at Roland Garros on Monday will be the first time the two have faced off since the American’s win in the 2016 Australian Open quarter-finals -- Sharapova’s last match before serving a 15-month doping ban.
“I think the book was 100 percent hearsay, at least all the stuff I read and the quotes that I read, which was a little bit disappointing,” said Williams after her 6-3, 6-4 third-round win over Julia Goerges.
“I have cried in the locker room many times after a loss, and that’s what I have seen a lot of people do. I think it’s normal.
“It’s a Wimbledon final, you know. So it’s just, like, I think it would be more shocking if I wasn’t in tears...
“The book was a lot about me. I was surprised about that, to be honest. You know, I was, like, ‘oh, okay. I didn’t expect to be reading a book about
me, that Serena Williams Maria Sharapova wasn’t necessarily true’.”
The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who holds a 19-2 record over Sharapova, is playing her first major tournament since winning the 2017 Australian Open, after giving birth to her daughter Olympia.
Williams’s only two losses to fellow former world number one Sharapova came 14 years ago -- in the 2004 Wimbledon final and at the WTA Tour Championships -before even the birth of Twitter and Youtube. But both are on the road back towards the top of the sport after their recent absences.
Williams had played only four matches since taking time off due to pregnancy before arriving at Roland Garros. Sharapova is seeded for the first time at a Grand Slam since her suspension for using meldonium and is playing her first French Open since 2015 after being refused a wildcard by tournament organisers last year.