Serena, Venus Williams each advance to 4th round in Melbourne
The Williams sisters are moving on to the fourth round of the Australian Open, winning their singles matches just minutes apart on Friday (or Saturday, in Australia).
For Venus Williams, the three-set, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1, win over Camila Giorgi ensured her first trip to the fourth round of a Grand Slam event since 2011 Wimbledon. The 34-year-old danced to the music playing in the stadium after the match, clearly basking in the moment.
Giorgi came within two points of winning in the second set before Venus stormed back.
"Well, this old cat has a few tricks left," she said in her on-court interview. Moving on "feels fantastic especially when things happen in your life and it's not in your control, so it definitely feels awesome to be here, and I don't want to leave it at that. I'll try to keep going."
She'll face No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska in her next match.
As Venus made her way off court, her younger sister was making a comeback of her own on the Rod Laver Arena court – a comeback inspired by Venus's match.
"I looked at her score and she was up 4-1 and I was like, come on, Serena, you can do it too," she'd say later.
Serena had dropped the first set to 20-year-old Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, 6-4. The five-time Australian Open champ was struggling to find her rhythm.
But 26th-seed Svitolina failed to keep the momentum going in the next set. Serena took over for the next four games. Svitolina broke her in the fifth, making it 4-1, and held serve to get to 4-2, but that was all she had left. Serena closed it out, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.
“She kept hitting winners and there wasn’t anything I could do,” she said afterwards, explaining what happened in the first set. “But when in doubt, just keep running. That’s what Venus always told me.”
Serena faces 24th seed Garbine Muguruza in the next round.
