MELBOURNE (AFP) –– Serena Williams overcame an error-strewn start Friday to thwart Anastasia Potapova and ensure her bid for history at the Australian Open continued.
The 23-time Grand Slam had 31 unforced errors but wore down the Russian 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in 97 minutes on Rod Laver Arena to set up a fourth-round showdown with seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
“Definitely good to be in the fourth round,” she said.
“I came out of the blocks not like I have been (before). But it’s all about surviving and playing better every round.”
The 10th seed had been in strong form so far in Melbourne as she chases Margaret Court’s record 24 Grand Slam tally, but was out-of-sorts in an error-strewn start to fall down a break.
But Potapova, 19, had a meltdown trying to serve out the first set with five double faults squandering the golden opportunity.
A refocused Williams then lifted her intensity and won a tiebreak before cruising through the second set.
Williams, the seven-time Australian Open champion, will play Sabalenka on Sunday. Sabalenka thrashed American Ann Li 6-3, 6-1, with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.
FANS BANNED
The Australian Open tennis Grand Slam announced a ban on fans and said players would be cocooned in biosecure “bubbles” as Victoria state authorities ordered six million people into lockdown on Friday to stamp out a new coronavirus outbreak.
The five-day, state-wide lockdown starting at midnight local time (1300 GMT) to combat an outbreak of the highly infectious UK strain at an airport hotel, is just the latest setback for the troubled tournament.
The year’s first Grand Slam, which started three weeks late to allow international players to quarantine, has already welcomed tens of thousands of socially distanced fans in the biggest crowds seen in tennis since the pandemic.
Under the new measures, some five million people in Australia’s second-biggest city will have to remain at home for five days from midnight, except for a limited number of permitted essential activities.
“These restrictions are all about making sure that we respond appropriately to the fastest-moving, most infectious strain of coronavirus that we have seen,” said state Premier Daniel Andrews.
“I am confident that this short, sharp circuit-breaker will be effective. We will be able to smother this. We will be able to prevent it getting away from us.”
The latest outbreak, stemming from an airport hotel housing international travellers in mandatory quarantine, has so far infected 13 people, including staff and their families.
It has triggered the third lockdown in Melbourne, which came out of a four-month period of isolation in late October and has since remained virtually virus-free.
Tournament director Craig Tiley gave assurances that the Australian Open would continue, with players deemed essential workers and exempt from the lockdown.
“Play will continue. The players will compete in a bubble form,” Tiley said.
