Australian Open: Serena Williams cruises into the third round with straight-sets win

Serena Williams cruised into the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday defeating Nina Stojanovic.

Williams, 39, continued her bid to equal Margret Court’s all-time mark of 24 Grand Slams as she defeated the 99th rank Serb in just 69 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.

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“l wasn’t thinking as much in the second (set), as I was in the first,” said Williams.

On her 101st Australian Open match, she hit 27 winners while sporting her unique, one-legged catsuit yet again. “I’m here to have fun and it’s great to be playing in front of a crowd,” she added.

On the other hand, former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu’s emotional comeback after 15 months ended in the hands of Hsieh Su-Wei from Taiwan.

The eight seed Andreescu was playing her first tournament since October 2019 after a serious knee injury.

She was unable to cope with Hsieh’s range of shots and was defeated 6-3, 6-2 in an hour and 23 minutes.
“You need to find a way to get through and the crowd helped me fight,” said Hsieh after beating the Canadian.

Former Wimbledon champion and Melbourne runner-up in 2019, Kvitova committed 44 unforced errors which led to her 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 defeat to Sorana Cirstea of Romania.

However, seventh-seeded Aryna Sabalenka found it hard in going through 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 against Russia’s Daria Kasatkina.