NEW YORK -- Take note, tennis fans: Serena Williams looks poised for another big run at a Grand Slam.
Williams posted her easiest victory yet at this U.S. Open, showing no ill effects from a lingering thumb injury and beating No. 10 Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-4 Sunday to reach the quarterfinals.
U.S. Open scores
Need results from the U.S. Open? Updates from every court and every match from USOpen.org: Scores
• Complete results
The No. 8-seeded Williams was much stronger and faster than Bartoli, and fittingly finished off the Frenchwoman with back-to-back aces.
Williams also had no problems with the chair umpire. In her last match, the two-time Open champion got reprimanded for reading from her pink notebook during the match.
Even though Williams is an eight-time major champion, there were doubts about her going into the final Slam of the season. She hurt her left thumb at Wimbledon and had not played since then, prompting some to wonder how effective she'd be in this tournament.
"A couple of weeks ago, I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to come here," she said.
Instead, she's so far put on a repeat performance from the Australia Open. Hurt for much of 2006, she went into Melbourne unseeded, then reeled off a strong run to win it.
Williams will play the winner of the night match between No. 1 Justine Henin and No. 15 Dinara Safina. If it's Henin, it would be their third consecutive major quarterfinal meeting.
Williams' sister, Venus, was set to play No. 5 Ana Ivanovic. Also on Sunday's schedule were No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Novak Djokovic.
Bartoli had a breakthrough at Wimbledon, finishing as the runner-up to Venus Williams, but has struggled to duplicate that success.
Physically overmatched, her best shot was to try to wear out Williams with steady, deliberate returns. Using a two-handed grip from both sides, Bartoli is known for her unusual training methods -- her father likes to hit multicolored, multisized balls at her in practice to sharpen her focus.
Williams, however, hit the same kind of ball at Bartoli all match. As in, really hard.
She held a 32-10 edge in winners and her fastest serve was 124 mph to Bartoli's 106. Williams also stayed in control, putting 81 percent of her first serves in play.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
Source: ESPN.com
No comments:
Post a Comment