{"id":86334,"date":"2017-01-22T21:41:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T02:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=86334"},"modified":"2017-01-22T21:41:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T02:41:57","slug":"serena-williams-into-australian-open-quarterfinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/01\/22\/serena-williams-into-australian-open-quarterfinals\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams into Australian Open quarterfinals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Serena<\/a>
Serena Williams (Pictured) scrapped her way into the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, working around a misfiring serve and a rash of unforced errors to beat Barbora Strycova as the heat intensified on Monday. (Photo: Serena Williams\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2013Serena Williams scrapped her way into the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, working around a misfiring serve and a rash of unforced errors to beat Barbora Strycova as the heat intensified on Monday.<\/p>\n

She had a little bit of luck in some big moments, but created it herself by staying in points against the No. 16-ranked Strycova, who made the No. 2-ranked Williams engage in more and longer rallies than anyone so far in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Despite the four service breaks (three in the first set), and with the fluky net cord and the off-balance, scrunched-shoulder backhand that bounced flatly and clinched her the first set on her eighth set point, Williams found a way to win 7-5, 6-4.<\/p>\n

That keeps Williams on track in her bid for an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam title. If she gets there, the 35-year-old American will regain the No. 1 ranking as well.<\/p>\n

The match started with four straight service breaks, with only two points going with serve, until Williams held for a 3-2 lead. There were seven service breaks in the first set \u2013with Williams getting the decisive one in the 12th game.<\/p>\n

She broke Strycova’s serve early in the second to establish a lead but was broken while serving for the match. She finished off in the next game with another break of her own, her sixth of the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s good to know I have a plan B or option 2, I wasn’t serving my greatest today, also she was putting a lot of returns in there,\u201d said Williams, who had a first-serve percentage of 45, and made four double-faults. \u201cIt’s always good to have something to improve on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second-seeded Williams advanced to quarterfinals at Melbourne Park for the 11th time since 2001 \u2013she’s only ever lost three times here in that round.<\/p>\n

Angelique Kerber, who beat Williams in the final here last year and then ended the 22-time Grand Slam winner’s 186-week streak at No. 1 by winning the U.S. Open, was upset in the fourth round six minutes into second week of the tournament in a straight-sets loss to Coco Vandeweghe the previous night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love pressure. I feel like I deal well with pressure,\u201d said Williams, who has won the Australian Open six times. \u201cI love the game. Honestly I have nothing to lose. I’ve won enough. … Everything is a bonus for me right now. It’s kind of a little relaxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hot-and-cold run of weather in Melbourne continued, with the temperatures hitting 32 Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) when Williams walked onto Rod Laver Arena to get play started on Day 8.<\/p>\n

It followed a chaotic middle Sunday that contained two big upsets, with Kerber’s exit following top-ranked and five-time finalist Andy Murray’s fourth-round defeat by No. 50-ranked Mischa Zverev. Roger Federer, returning from six months on the sidelines, rebounded to beat No. 5 Kei Nishikori in five sets and will meet Zverev in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Rafael Nadal, the only major winner remaining on the bottom half of the men’s draw, was playing for a quarterfinal spot later Monday against Gael Monfils.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2013Serena Williams scrapped her way into the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, working around a misfiring serve and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":86335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,44],"tags":[13737,14114,13736],"class_list":["post-86334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-sports","tag-australian-open","tag-quarterfinals","tag-serena-williams","mauthors-john-pye","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}