Serena, Venus fight on as Azarenka heads home
Tuesday, 27 January 2015
MELBOURNE, Jan 26 (AFP): Serena Williams and sister Venus displayed all their fighting qualities to stay alive at the Australian Open Monday along with defending champion Stan Wawrinka, but two-time champion Victoria Azarenka was knocked out.
World number one Serena battled back from a set down in a tense match against Spain's Garbine Muguruza to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 and make the quarter-finals, staying on track for a 19th Grand Slam title and her sixth at Melbourne.
"I didn't start out so well and she did everything she needed to do in the first set," said Williams, who can lose her top ranking if she exits and Maria Sharapova wins the tournament.
Elder sister Venus' late-career renaissance gathered pace as she rolled back the years to thump Polish sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. She is now 9-0 for the season after winning the Auckland Classic.
It is the 34-year-old seven-time Grand Slam champion's first major quarter since the 2010 US Open, having been diagnosed with the energy-sapping Sjogren's Syndrome in 2011.
World number one Novak Djokovic takes on unseeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg later Monday with the winner playing Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic, who beat Spanish 12th seed Feliciano Lopez in five sets.
Wawrinka ensured his passage by winning a thrilling fourth-set tiebreaker to down Spain's tenacious Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (7/2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (10/8).
He will now play Japanese superstar Kei Nishikori, who was a class above dogged Spanish baseliner David Ferrer, easing through 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.