Serena Williams breezed into the second round of the Australian Open with a commanding 6-1 6-2 win against Su-Wei Hsieh. The world number one was rarely troubled as she put on a display of great tennis. In an unsurprising result the American raced out of the blocks going ahead 3-0 in next to no time.
Williams went on to win the set 6-1 before continuing her momentum into the second set, quickly taking a 4-0 lead before closing serving out the math to love and taking the set 6-2. With the match time just creeping over the hour mark, Williams will be happy with her performance and perhaps would have taken note of Victoria Azarenka’s 6-0 6-0 the previous day and stepped her level up.
Another grand slam winner falls
Petra Kvitova was the big shock of the day as she went out in straight sets to Daria Gavrilova. Losing 6-4 6-4, the number seven seed never looked like causing Gavrilova huge trouble. Gavrilova who will be hoping for a great year played a calm game as she dispatched Kvitova, however serving for the match she was unable to see it out. In the next game though, Gavrilova broke Kvitova to move into the third round.
Maria Sharapova also enjoyed a dominant against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, winning 6-2 6-1. It was anything but easy for Sharapova however as she was broke two times, in total out of the eight games played in the first set, only two of them were held, both by Sharapova. The second set was a different story however with Sharapova only dropping one game before serving out the match with ease.
Agnieszka Radwanska negotiated a tricky second round tie against Eugenie Bouchard, winning in straight sets 6-4 6-2. In what could have been a potential banana skin for the Pole, Radwanska played a great match of tennis fighting back from 4-2 down to win the first set. The second set was more one sided as Radwanska broke twice to move into the third round and extend her record this year to 7-0.
Best of the rest
Yulia Putintseva backed up her shock win against Caroline Wozniacki in the first round with a 6-3 6-1 win against Xin-Yun Han. Reaching the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time, the Kazakhstani will look to climb the rankings this year and become the highest ranked player in her country.
Roberta Vinci continued her great form as she knocked out USA’s Irina Falconi in straight sets. Since her shock win against Serena Williams, Vinci seems to have found another level after it seemed her career was at risk of petering out.
Belinda Bencic also enjoyed a straight sets win as she beat Timea Babos 6-3 6-3. Carla Suarez-Navarro ground out a tough win against Maria Sakkari winning in three sets 6-7(5) 6-2 6-2. Monica Puig won an entertaining match against Kristyna Pliskova 4-6 7-6(6) 9-7.
Other results
Katerina Bondarenko def. Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1 7-5
Lauren Davis def. Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6(7) (RET)
Anna-Lena Friedsam def. Qiang Wang 6-3 6-4
Daria Kasatkina def. Ana Konjuh 6-4 6-3
Margarita Gasparyan def. Kurumi Nara 6-4 6-4
Elizaveta Kulichkova def. Monica Niculescu 6-4 2-6 6-4
Kristina Mladenovic def. Nicole Gibbs 6-1 7-6(4)