(January 15, 2014) Serena Williams upped her record at the Australian Open to 60-8, equaling 11-time winner Margaret Court’s 60 match wins in the Open Era at the Australian Open with a drubbing of Vesna Dolonc 6-1, 6-2 in 63 minutes.
Williams put up 10 aces and 24 winners in the victory over the No. 104th player in the world under the 104F heat. The 17-time major winner wanted to make the match as short as possible.
“I think it was tough conditions out there,” Williams said. “I think it keeps getting hotter. Every day is really hot.
“So it wasn’t the plan, but it just so happened like that.”
“I thought about it, but it definitely was not in my game plan. So it wasn’t really something that I was trying to do, is to go for winners.
“I just try to hit a bunch of aces and a bunch of winners – that’s all you can do because it’s too hot to get into long rallies,” she said.
Williams get the winner of Karolina Pliskova or Daniela Hantuchova next in the third round.
Fourth-seeded Li Na took another teenager to school on Wednesday defeating 16-year-old Belinda Bencic, 6-0, 7-6(5). Li’s first-round win was over the youngest player in the tournament teen Ana Konjuh,
“She played exactly like Martina Hingis, I feel,” Li said. “Yeah, it’s very tough to play a decent player I never see before, because I cannot get any information.
“When comes to the court, it’s like, Okay, is similar like first round. It’s like, Okay. Yeah, I think today she give me very tough time end of the second set.
“But I was really happy in the end I can use my experience to win the match.”
The almost 32-year-old Li yielded a mere 10 points in the 22 minute first set.
“I think in the first set it was quite a lesson, but in the second set I played better and I tried to be more aggressive,” Bencic said.
She’ll face No. 26 Lucie Safarova in the third round.
One upset on the women’s side so far on Wednesday – 2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki, the 15th seed fell to Monica Niculescu 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.