One can never really grasp how good Serena Williams is until you’ve faced her on the court – at least that’s what 18-year-old Daria Kasatkina felt after losing to the American 6-1, 6-1 in the Australian Open third round on Friday.
“She’s a very good player, but today she was like a hurricane,” said the Russian teenager, who had beaten Serena’s sister, Venus earlier this month in Auckland.
“She’s really the best. She doesn’t give me even a chance to play how I play, it was a great experience to play against her.
“She showed me what I have to do on the court, I have to work like an animal.”
Cutest thing I've seen today: Daria Kasatkina's face when she mentions Nadal's loss yesterday. She's a Rafanatic!
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) January 20, 2016Serena, who served at 80 per cent first serves, hit 27 winners to a mere eight unforced errors, dropped just two points on her own serve and broke Kasatkina five times, was clinical in every aspect as she stormed into the fourth round where she faces another young Russian, this time the 21-year-old Margarita Gasparyan.
At the net, Serena exchanged some nice words with Kasatkina, who later revealed the world No1 had told her she liked her forehand.
“Everything I’ve been trying to work on was kind of clicking today,” said Serena after her 71st Australian Open match win – the most ever recorded by a player in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova responded emphatically to a second set letdown by taking down American Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-0 to register her 600th career win – captured over all level tournaments, not just tour-level.
Sharapova’s first pro win was in a $25K ITF tournament in Columbus in 2002 against Teryn Ashley and her first tour-level victory came the following month at Indian Wells against Brie Rippner.
The Russian No5 seed was asked if she remembered her maiden win and lucky for her, her tennis is much better than her memory.
“Was it in Palm Springs? I’m going to pretend like I’m smarter than that. Was it against Samantha Reeves? I remember that match because I got smoked by Monica (Seles) after that. It’s a great memory,” laughed Sharapova.
Right location, and she did lose to Seles after, but her opponent was Rippner not Reeves.
Sharapova will face teenager Belinda Bencic in the fourth round after the Swiss overcame Katerina Bondarenko 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Bencic has now won her last 15 consecutive three-set matches.
“That’s good. Because I was losing a lot, and then my dad and my coach were like ‘you don’t have any fitness. You have to do this and that,” Bencic said laughing, referring to her impressive three-set record. “Now I was like ‘see?’”
The match of the day went to Russian-turned-Australian Daria Gavrilova, who battled for almost three hours to defeat French No28 seed Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 to reach her first grand slam fourth round.
Gavrilova showed lots of class when she urged the crowd to stay quiet when they cheered for a Mladenovic double fault.
The 21-year-old was broken when serving for the match the first time but held her nerve the second time around.
“I’m just really excited I want to hug the whole stadium,” Gavrilova told the crowd at Hisense Arena.
