Former World No. 1 Serena Williams powered past Julia Goerges of Germany, winning 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 15 minutes to set up a blockbuster fourth round encounter with another former No. 1 Maria Sharapova. Throughout the contest Serena was powerful, imposing and supremely efficient as she dominated proceedings from start to finish, completing a straight forward victory with the minimum of fuss.
Serena began the match from where she left off in the previous round, breezing to a comfortable hold in the opening game. Goerges held on to her serve in the next game, but Williams surged ahead with another clinical hold.
Goerges showed her first signs of being under pressure as she sent a backhand long, gifting two break points to the American. The German saved both of them and another with an ace, but she offered Serena, another opportunity, which the former three-time champion quickly grabbed with the help of a beautiful passing winner.
The former World No. 1 backed up the break with a hold to love. Minutes later, another love hold made it 5-2 in Serena’s favor and even though Goerges managed to bring down Serena’s advantage to 5-3, she was unable to prevent her from sealing the deal on her own serve in the ensuing game. Williams offered no chances as she served out the set in 31 minutes in some style with a perfect overhead smash at the net.
After a steady start to the second set, Goerges found herself under the gun as she made a couple of erratic errors to offer her rival two break chances in the third game. She saved the first with an ace and the 2nd by luring Serena into a forehand error. The 11th seed was forced to save a third and a fourth break point, but Williams was determined to get an early break, which she eventually got for a 2-1 lead.
The following game was a very unlike Serena as she immediately moved to 40-15, but somehow managed to lose her serve from there. However, the break stirred her up as she brought up three break points before regaining her lead by wrong-footing Goerges on the baseline with the assistance of a powerful backhand winner.
Williams doubled her lead to 4-2 with two unreturnable serves, but Goerges once again brought it down to 4-3 by producing a marvelous forehand winner and an ace. It became 5-3 in Serena’s favor as the 36-year-old held on to her serve after saving a break point. In the next game, Goerges held on after a contentious call from the line umpire to force Serena to serve for the match.
Goerges could barely move as Serena pounded one winner after the other. A love hold set up a mouth watering round of 16 meeting with former two-time champion Maria Sharapova.
