Venus Joins Serena in Melbourne Quarterfinals

January 26, 2015 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Photo credit: Adam Wolfthal

Venus Williams continues to play some of the best tennis of her entire career to begin the 2015 season as the 18th seeded American outlasted sixth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 on Monday to move into the Australian Open quarterfinals.

Venus was the more aggressive player all match long. She fired 43 winners compared to Radwanska who only had 20, and won 24 points at the net.

“The first set wasn’t easy—it was 6-3, but it was about an hour,” said Venus. “In the second set, she started playing even better. I think I was a little bit impatient out there. In the third set, I just went into a little bit of a trance—I just wanted to win so badly.”

The 34-year-old has shown some vintage form thus far in 2015. She has yet to lose a match and has shown some toughness in her last couple of matches to come out victorious.

She will take on fellow American Madison Keys in the quarters. Keys has played exceptionally well in Melbourne, beating fourth-seeded Petra Kvitova in the third-round and then following it up with a convincing 6-2, 6-4 win over compatriot Madison Brengle on Monday.

“There’s definitely the high of winning and beating Kvitova and everything, and then having to kind of refocus, regroup and go into another match, a match where I was the higher-ranked player,” said the 19-year-old Keys. “I should have won this, so it was a different kind of pressure, and it was different nerves. But, you know, I think managed those nerves pretty well out there today.”

Keys was the much more aggressive player against Brengle. She went for her shots, breaking four-times and firing 35 more winners than her opponent on her way to victory in just over an hour.

It will be the first Grand Slam quarterfinal for the young American, who dropped the only previous match played between her and Venus.

Serena dropped the opening set for the second consecutive match before rallying yet again, ousting the 24th-seeded Garbine Muguruza 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to push into the final eight.

Serena was able to exact some revenge on Muguruza. The Spaniard handed Serena her worst Grand Slam loss ever, a 6-2, 6-2 drubbing at last year’s French Open.

Muguruza opened this match up with a 6-2 win in the first set, and was 3-3 in the second set before Serena took control. She won the final three games of that set, and broke twice in the third set to come away victorious in almost exactly two hours.

It is the first time since 2010 Wimbledon that both Williams’ sisters find themselves in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam together.

In the quarters, Serena will take on 11th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. Cibulkova, who lost to Li Na in last year’s Aussie Open finals, hung on to beat the unseeded Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

“I always have tough matches with Vika. The tennis she plays goes well with mine,” said Cibulkova. “But today, I would say it was the best match we’ve ever played against each other. I’ve lost to her before where I was a set up and maybe 5-2 or 5-3 second set, and I didn’t manage to finish it. Today I wasn’t thinking about the score, I was just going for it.”

The quarterfinals on the other side of the draw feature some excellent matchups. Canadian Eugenie Bouchard will meet Russian Maria Sharapova, and Russian Ekaterina Makarova will take on Romanian Simona Halep.

 


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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