Australian Open: Serena, Sharapova, Djokovic, Federer cruise on

The top seeds in both the men’s and women’s draws advanced to the fourth round of the 2016 Australian Open on Friday evening in Melbourne in straight sets.

Serena Williams dispatched Daria Kasatkina in 44 minutes in a 6-1, 6-1 whitewashing to win her 10th consecutive match at the Australian Open. Williams dominated from the start, winning a ridiculous 96 percent of her first serve points, which she got in 80 percent of the time.

She overpowered Kasatkina with 27 winners to just eight unforced errors in a tremendous performance. Williams now moves on to face Russian Margarita Gasparyan in the fourth round, who she beat last year at Wimbledon in straight sets in their only previous meeting.

Men’s top seed, Novak Djokovic also advanced in straight sets, although he had to work a little harder than Williams to earn his third round victory over Italian Andreas Seppi in a 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 match.

Djokovic was excellent on his serve, getting 72 percent of his first serves in and winning 76 percent of first serve points. His quality on serve yielded only three break point opportunities for Seppi and Djokovic won all three of those points.

Maria Sharapova survived to move through to the next round of the Australian open.

Read also: Australian Open: Federer, Serena make progress

in Sports January 20, 2016 0 Co
The five-time Grand Slam winner hadn’t dropped a set into the third round but struggled a bit before beating 22-year-old Lauren Davis 6-1 6-7 (5) 6-0. After racing through the first set in just 26 minutes, Sharapova was broken twice in the second set, which lasted 77 minutes. She returned with more composure in the final set, making just five unforced errors and breaking Davis three times.

In the fourth round, Sharapova faces up-and-coming Swiss teen Belinda Bencic, who won her first two WTA titles in 2015 including Toronto where she beat No 1 Serena Williams in the semis followed by No 2 Simona Halep in the final.

Also, Roger Federer was already a long way clear at the top of the list of men with the most wins in grand slam singles matches, so becoming the first to 300 wasn’t a major distraction.

He reached the milestone at Rod Laver Arena on Friday, when he moved into the fourth round of the Australian Open with a 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-4 victory over Grigor Dimitrov.

“It’s very exciting, I must tell you,” Federer said of his latest record, adding that reaching 1000 wins in tour matches last year was also a cause for celebration. “It was a big deal for me.

“Not something I ever aimed for or looked for, but when it happens, it’s very special. Yeah, you look deeper into it, I guess, where it’s all happened and how. So it’s very nice.”

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