MELBOURNE: Serena Williams gave compatriot Nicole Gibbs a lesson in Grand Slam tennis with a 6-1 6-3 thrashing to charge into the fourth round of the Australian Open yesterday.
Having passed her earlier tests against more accomplished players, second seed Serena had far too many weapons for the 92nd-ranked Gibbs, who appeared overawed by the occasion at a sun-drenched Rod Laver Arena.
Serena suffered a brief lapse when serving for the match at 5-2 and was broken for the first time, but she promptly broke back to close out the one-sided contest in just over an hour.
The 35-year-old American, bidding for a record 23rd Grand Slam title in the professional era and a seventh at Melbourne Park, heads into the second week, and a clash against 16th seed Barbora Strycova, in fine touch.
“I feel like I have been able to do pretty good,” Serena told reporters, having had only two tour matches to warm up for the tournament after calling off her season after the US Open last September to deal with a knee injury.
“I have been doing the things I have been doing in practice, and hopefully I can build up on this.
“That’s all I want to do.”
In the other women’s matches, Britain’s Johanna Konta maintained her sizzling form with a dominant 6-3, 6-1 victory over former world number one Caroline Wozniacki.
Prize
Konta’s prize is a round-of-16 rematch with Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova, whom she edged at the same stage last year, going 8-6 in the final set.
“I was very happy with I guess the way I was able to assert myself from the very beginning, also tighten up my game a bit as that first set went on, and just maintain my level to the very end,” said Konta.
“Against someone like Caroline, she’s not going to give it to you. You really do have to earn it and win it till the very last point. I’m just very happy I was able to keep that pressure on.”
Konta, who is on an eight-match win streak after her victory at this month’s Sydney International, had never played Wozniacki before, making for an interesting battle.
The Briton, 25, kept the Dane on the move, pushing her around the baseline as she looked for an opening, which came in the seventh game when she worked Wozniacki wide and came to the net to smash a volley winner.
It was one-way traffic as Konta raced to the finish line, leaving a dazed Wozniacki, who has put injury struggles aside and enjoyed a resurgence over the past year, left to wonder what hit her.
Makarova, seeded 30, beat sixth seed Dominika Cibulkova in a three-set marathon.
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who hadn’t won an Australian Open match since 1998 before this year, extended her fairytale run by beating Greece’s Maria Sakkari 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Next up for the 34-year-old Croatian, who put her career on hold to flee her abusive father, is American qualifier Jennifer Brady, who upset 14th seed Elena Vesnina.
Fifth seed Karolina Pliskova survived a scare before beating Latvian teenager Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 6-0, 10-8 and she will face Australia’s Daria Gavrilova in the next round.