Serena Williams eased past Karolina Muchova 6-3 6-2 to set up a fourth round meeting with Petra Martic at the US Open.
It was a comfortable win for the 23-time grand slam champion as she required patience to down the unpredictable Muchova.
After hitting 20 winners, Serena booked her place in the second week of the US Open in 1 hour and 14 minutes where she plays Petra Martic next.
There were also third round wins for Karolina Pliskova and Ashleigh Barty in contrasting matches.
The American didn’t have it all her own way though as the Czech Republican’s slice and dice game caused Serena some problems early on.
A lot of fiery passion from Serena early on showed the crowd that this was not going to be an easy match at all as Muchova made the 23-time grand slam champion uncomfortable.
However a change in approach from the 38 year-old turned the match on its head as Serena became more patient with her return game.
Instead of thumping winners off the return, the eighth seed decided to construct points and force the unforced errors out of her opponent.
Once this happened there was no turning back for last year’s finalist as two consecutive breaks of serve sealed the opening set in 40 minutes.
Although there was a bit of resistance in the second set from Muchova, her forehand let her down when it mattered today.
Even though one break was surrendered it was comfortable for Serena who will head into the second week with a lot of confidence as another thumping forehand sealed the victory.
After the match Serena praised her own intensity after three good wins this week, “I had a lot of intensity today which is good for me. I am tough on myself so can’t really assess my performance just yet,” Serena said in her post-match interview.
Next for Serena is Croatian Petra Martic, who knocked out last year’s semi-finalist Anastasija Sevastova in straight sets to reach the next round.
Pliskova And Barty Advance In Contrasting Ways
Meanwhile in other results, Karolina Pliskova and Ashleigh Barty both advanced to the second week in very contrasting ways.
Former finalist Pliskova survived a two hour epic with Ons Jabeur, winning 6-1 4-6 6-4 in a rollercoaster match-up on Louis Armstrong.
While world number two, Ash Barty came through 7-5 6-3 against Maria Sakkari as she looked to increase confidence on her serve.
Pliskova will now play Britain’s Johanna Konta while Barty will play Fiona Ferro or Qiang Wang.
