Wimbledon holders Serena Williams and Andy Murray advanced to the third round of the US open on Thursday with decisive straight-sets victories.
Top-seeded Williams defeated fellow American Vania King 6-3, 6-3, as she ties Martina Navratilova on 306 Grand Slam singles match wins; the most ever for a woman.
Cheered on by rap mogul Jay Z and his pop superstar wife Beyonce, the world no 1 fired 13 aces, with a total of 38 winners against 87th-ranked wild card King as she chases a seventh US Open title and a 23rd Grand Slam singles crown, both of which would be Open Era records.
“This one’s kind of cool,” she said of her latest milestone, “to win 306.”
Also, amid heavy downpour and a raucous crowd at Arthur Ashe, Murray downed tenacious Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.
After needing seven set points to seal the opening set, Murray broke Granollers twice in the second set and once in the third to move through to a meeting with Italian Paolo Lorenzi, a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-7 (1/7), 7-6 (7/3) winner over France’s Gilles Simon.
Among those who didn’t have the luxury of the roof, 2014 finalist Kei Nishikori of Japan waited out a third-set rain delay en route to a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over 20-year-old Russian qualifier Karen Khachanov.
Third-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka, a two-time semifinalist, edged 243rd-ranked Italian qualifier Alessandro Giannessi 6-1, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5, while Australian bad boy Nick Kyrgios put on a serving masterpiece, firing 27 aces and winning 45 of 48 first-serve points in a 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos.
Argentine star Juan Martin del Potro, who has undergone four wrist surgeries since lifting the US Open trophy in 2009, closed out the action on Ashe with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 6-2 victory over 19th seeded American Steve Johnson.
Del Potro, ranked 142nd in the world after a number of niggling injuries that nearly cost him his career, is back in the Open as a wildcard after a sparkling run to a silver medal in the Rio Olympics.
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