Australian Open: Serena Williams Through To Fourth Round

Williams, the No. 13 seed, next plays Mona Barthel, a match that could vault her into her ninth Australian Open quarterfinal.

Fat chance. Kerber was relentless from the start and the defending champion played herself into form before meeting the USA’s Coco Vandeweghe, who halted Eugenie Bouchard’s revival by beating the Canadian, a semi-finalist in Melbourne three years ago, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.

The 34-year-old Croat, who stunned third seed Agnieszka Radwanska in round two, came from a set down to end the dreams of Greek Maria Sakkari 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. After sharing her engagement with the world, as well as her famous picture of that engagement ring, Serena Williams announced that she felt good. In a hard-fought encounter, Makarova took early control, winning the first set 6-2, before Cibulkova bounced back by forcing the decider courtesy a tie-break win, after initially being in deep trouble.

But not before a stunning second-set comeback. “This is my favourite Grand Slam and I really want to stay here”.

After humbling Swiss talent Belinda Bencic in their opener, Williams doled out another helping of grand slam pain for former top 10 player Safarova, the woman she beat for the 2015 French Open title.

Makarova will play either 2016 semifinalist Johanna Konta or former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki.

6-2 win over 14th-seeded Elena Vesnina on Show Court 2 on Saturday, which essentially is an outside court for singles on the first weekend of the season’s first major.

The 26-year-old Canadian hit 21 aces as he set up a meeting with France’s Gilles Simon, who reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2009. More context: Brady came into this event with exactly two WTA-level victories, both achieved in Guangzhou, China, last fall.

Under sunny skies and temperatures of around 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit), Ekaterina Makarova and Dominika Cibulkova opened play at Rod Laver Arena.

He faces Pablo Carreno Busta, seeded 30, on an outside court, with the victor due to meet either Richard Gasquet or Grigor Dimitrov, who play in the evening on Rod Laver Arena.