Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova ease into third round of Australian Open

Eighth seed Venus Williams has provided Australian Open fans with the shock of the tournament so far after she was bundled out by World No. 47 Johanna Konta of Britain here on Tuesday.

Konta won their first round match 6-4 6-2 to end Williams’ tournament and the American then skipped the post-match interviews.

Serena, who is aiming to equal Steffi Graf’s record of 22 Grand Slams at this tournament, won three Grand Slams past year namely the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon before losing the US Open title. “I think I played unbelievable – the fifth set from the break that he made me, I just started hitting winners”.

“You can pick any match that you like that the top player lost, and just create a story out of it”, Djokovic said.

Konta was really going for her groundstrokes in a high-risk, high-reward approach that kept Williams, who had wrapping on her left leg, on the defensive.

A strong run in the third grand slam of the year might see her grace Centre Court at Wimbledon, however, even if the home of British tennis has less meaning to her than some of her compatriots.

Kateryna Bondarenko, Ukraine, def. Svetlana Kuznetsova (23), Russia, 6-1, 7-5.

Roger Federer extended his streak by reaching the third round for his 17th consecutive Australian Open.

Williams’ next opponent will be 18-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina, who beat Croatia’s Ana Konjuh 6-4, 6-3, and she faces a potential quarterfinal match against Maria Sharapova, which would be a rematch of the 2015 final.

Madison Keys of the United States makes a forehand return to Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016.

She closed with an ace, her seventh, finishing in precisely an hour.

“This really casts a very dark shadow on our sport right now”, Mary Jo Fernandez said on ESPN, as part of a panel discussion Wednesday on the controversy.

Her sister, Serena, didn’t offer many clues after her second-round win over Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday.

Gavrilova will next play No. 28 Kristina Mladenovic, who beat Nicole Gibbs 6-1, 7-6 (4).

When asked about her timing, Sharapova said, “Yeah, my toss went off a little bit, but I thought I was able to serve quite well the rest of the match, except that game, so that was good”.

Other seeded players advancing included No. 6 Tomas Berdych, No. 7 Kei Nishikori and 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic.

No. 3 Garbine Muguruza needed exactly an hour to beat Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit 6-0, 6-4, No. 11 Timea Bacsinszky advanced over Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 7-5 and No. 15 Madison Keys, a semifinalist here a year ago, had to save set points in the first before beating Zarina Diyas 7-6 (5), 6-1.

She fell behind 5-0 in the second set before Konta started to tighten up and Williams found her range to get a break back and hold serve at love for 5-2. The players said they have known the issue existed but they doubt any top players have been involved.

Andy Murray opened with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 win over Alexander Zverev, sand remains very much a round-by-round proposition at Melbourne Park, where he has lost the final four times.