Her sister Venus is gone, despatched by Johanna Konta on Tuesday, but Serena Williams is very much alive in this tournament and, although she is adamant she never looks at the draw, she surely knows she is two wins away from meeting Maria Sharapova for the 21st time in the quarter-finals.
Both won handily yesterday, by similar scores in roughly the same time against lesser opposition, but it is Williams who leads her personal battle with the Russian by a commanding 18-2 win-loss record and moves forward with most confidence.
Williams did not surprise with her post-match mantra: “It doesn’t matter who I play, when I play. Win or lose, there is always a next time for me and for them. I don’t really shy away from that.”
She spent exactly an hour dismissing poor Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan, 6-1, 6-2, shortly before Sharapova beat Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1 in 71 minutes. In the first round, Williams began the defence of her title rather more tentatively, and gave herself an “A for effort” in beating the Italian Camila Giorgi. On day three, she had recovered her composure and her court presence. She looked scarily strong again.
“That first round helped me because I was really just fighting. I gave a big effort there,” said the American. “Today I just wanted to stay focused for the whole time. I don’t think I made that many errors today—and I moved much better. So, slowly but surely, I’m feeling a little bit better.”
Williams arrived in Melbourne with fitness doubts she tried to downplay, having failed to finish a match at the Hopman Cup in Perth, but there was no sign of guarding an injury here.
She even played one of those round-the-post miracle shots, the ball barely reaching the height of the net as it whizzed down the line.
“It’s always cool to do something fresh and new,” she said. “I don’t know if I have ever done that before.”
Before she gets to a possible match-up with Sharapova, or even the fourth round, she must deal with another Russian, teenager Daria Kasatkina, who beat Venus in Auckland. Kasatkina defeated Croatian Ana Konjuh 6-4, 6-3.
“I don’t think it’s gonna be easy,” the world No. 1 said of her world No. 69 opponent. “Any time someone is beating Venus they are more than likely playing really good. I definitely will be ready for that. I will ask Venus what she thought of the match, and I’m sure Patrick (Mouratoglou, her coach) will know everything about her match. He’s really good at studying.”
Williams always has an edge about her during a major and she bristled when asked if she had ever watched her defeat in the US Open semi-finals last year by Roberta Vinci (who is still in this draw). “Every day and every night,” she said, before taking her leave.
There were no surprises in Sharapova’s victory—under the roof during a brief spell of rain—as she went into familiar automaton mode to dismantle her opponent. Her serve malfunctioned briefly towards the end of the first set but generally she was her familiar sound self, unemotional and ruthless.
Injury has curtailed the 28-year-old’s preparation for this tournament but she did not seem concerned. “I feel pretty good. I felt I was more confident with my left hand today. Especially when it’s like in the hand/wrist area, it’s in the back of your mind. But I didn’t really have much choice, so I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing. I just work with what I have.”
And what Sharapova has is a few more drop shots in her locker, not all of them a success. “It’s something that I have added to my game, and that’s helped me, especially playing against opponents that stay far back,” she said.
“When I’m aggressive and I have depth on my shots, it’s just good to have that variety to bring them in, to move forward myself. I had a couple of good ones; I had a couple of really crappy ones. I’d say it was pretty mediocre today,” the Russian added.
Barring Sharapova’s path to a showdown with Williams is American Lauren Davis, who was gifted a win when Magdalena Rybarikova retired with an injury to her right ankle after losing the first set tie-break.