Australian Open 2017: Serena Williams and Milos Raonic reach round three

Six-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams reached the third round with a straight-sets win over world number 61 Lucie Safarova on Thursday.

The American, 35, attempting to win an Open Era record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, won 6-3 6-4 in Melbourne.

Czech Safarova, who lost to Williams in the 2015 French Open final, failed to convert any of her six break points.

“I’m really happy to have got through that,” said world number two Williams, who won in one hour and 25 minutes.

“It’s never easy having to play in a second round against someone you have seen in a final. I’ve played two former top-10 opponents, but it’s a great way to start the tournament.”

• Live scores, results and order of play

Williams lost the Australian Open final last year to Angelique Kerber, but went on to win at Wimbledon and equal Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.

She will continue her bid for the record against 23-year-old Nicole Gibbs, who beat fellow American Irina Falconi 6-4 6-1.

Third seed Radwanska loses to world number 79

Poland’s world number three Agnieszka Radwanska suffered a surprise second-round exit to Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

The 27-year-old, who has reached two semi-finals in Melbourne in the past three tournaments, lost 6-3 6-2 to the 34-year-old world number 79.

Fifth-seed Karolina Pliskova beat 18-year-old Russian qualifier Anna Blinkova 6-0 6-2 in 59 minutes, meaning the Czech has dropped just four games en route to the third round.

“I don’t want to say my opponent wasn’t that good, but I was better,” said the 24-year-old, who faces Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko next.

Raonic fights cold to reach third round

Third seed Milos Raonic reached the third round of the Australian Open for the seventh time with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.

The Canadian 26, hit 21 aces as he set up a meeting with France’s Gilles Simon, who reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2009.

“I started feeling a little bit of a cough but I didn’t think much of it, then this morning I felt pretty bad waking up,” he said.

“I came out with the sort of idea of put everything into the match, try to solve it, understand the importance of the mental side of things in that situation.”

World number 15 Grigor Dimitrov also moved into the next round with a 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory over Korea’s Chung Hye-on.

He will face France’s Richard Gasquet after his 6-1 6-1 6-1 win over Argentine Carlos Berlocq. Former world number three David Ferrer beat American qualifier Ernesto Escobedo 2-6 6-4 6-4 6-2 to set up a tie with Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.

Source link