MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA) – Serena Williams made her way into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday with a 6-4 2-6 6-4 victory over Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
It was a big test for Williams, who was playing against one of the few players on the women’s tour, with the skill of matching her standards from behind the baseline.
Williams said in an on-court interview. “I’m happy to get through that one. It wasn’t easy and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. She was teeing off on every shot.”
“Even the games that I lost were super close, one shot here and one shot there, and I just felt like, ‘Serena you’ve got this, you’ve just got to keep going.'”
The first set saw the duo in a toe-to-toe position, which was even until Williams made a quick return to break Sabalenka for the first time, so as to take a 1-0 lead.
The American, who is pursuing a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title, had to put up a tough fight in front of Sabalenka’s onslaught as the seventh seed broke once more for a 4-1 lead before the match headed into a decider.
“I lost the second set but the games were so close so I just tried to stay in there,” Williams added.
Sabalenka fell prey to a double-fault to give Williams a 15-30 lead.
