Serena Williams, Sharapova into 3rd round at Australian Open

“Because I know when I was growing up – I mean, certainly throughout my whole career – I was never warned about that or told about that or anyone said to me how you should handle that if you’re in that situation”.

Williams then broke Konta as she was serving for the match, but she dug deep set up a second round match with world No. 83 Zheng Saisa.

One thing for sure: the Williams sisters aren’t playing doubles, so that will be the last sighting of Venus this year.

Djokovic had a third-set tussle with French teenager Quentin Halys before winning their night match 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), joining Williams and Roger Federer in the next stage.

Konta is playing in the Australian Open main draw for the first time. “Like past year the third round was the end for me, so I hope to go further this time”.

Venus Williams has been fined $5,000 U.S. dollars (£3,500) for shirking post-match press duties following her Australian Open first-round defeat to Britain’s Johanna Konta.

Starting with the serve in the opening set, Sharapova took all her opportunities in the match to get ahead – breaking serve twice to take an early lead in the first set 4-0 just 13 minutes in. She beat No. 9 Garbine Muguruza on the way to the fourth round of the U.S. Open past year and also had a win over No. 2 Simona Halep.

No. 10 Carla Suarez Navarro and No. 12 Belinda Bencic advanced along with 92nd-ranked Kateryna Bondarenko, who earned one of her biggest wins since returning from retirement in 2014 with a straight sets win over two-time major victor and No. 23-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The Chinese woman turns 27 on the day of her second ever Grand Slam match, a birthday present and a half, but for now, she gave way to a truly emotional moment: She could not hold back the tears as the full arena cheered and cheered. “Like it didn’t matter what the score was, I was there on every point”.

“I am excited about today, I played so well”. The 35-year-old American was clearly not at her peak after a superb season in 2015 but Sydney-born Konta dismissed that as she booked her place in the second round. “You can only lose the set, ‘” she said.

Sharapova’s match on Rod Laver Arena was one of only three that began on schedule – the other two were also in stadiums with covered roofs – after light rain delayed play for just over an hour on outside courts. He lost in the third round in his first two trips to Melbourne Park in 2000 and ’01 and again last year – in between he won the title four times and lost one final during a run of reaching the semifinals or better in 11 straight years.

Williams, who finished the year strongly in 2015 had not had the best of starts at all to 2016, falling in the Auckland opener where she was defending her title, and then looking inhibited with a strapped thigh, especially in the second set against the British No. 1.

“Yeah, I had a few problems but, well, I think I’m recovered now”, she said of the foot problem, “so very good”.