Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Just for the record, Serena Williams doesn't think of herself as an unseeded player or did she view her 6-2, 6-4 U.S. Open demolition of Ana Ivanovic last night as an upset.
For the doubters who think she hasn't played enough matches to stay sharp, or the haters who insist her long layoff from various interests outside the sport have hurt her game, last night's performance said otherwise.
"I'm playing better every match. I try to always do the little things better and peak in the later rounds," said Williams, who faces top-ranked ranked seed Amelie Mauresmo in a round of 16 matchup today more befitting a Grand Slam final.
"Mauresmo has been playing the best of anyone on the tour, so it'll be a good chance to see how I play against her. I like playing her," said Williams, not surprisingly since she's 9-1 against the Frenchwoman. "I like the way she hits the ball. We always have really good matches. My game just likes her game."
After breezing through the first set, Ivanovic led 3-2 in the second before Williams held with a 124-mph ace and then took the next point with a great shot. After Ivanovic came to net and hit a return backhand, Williams chased it down and hit a backhand lob over the 18-year-old's head and right in front of the back line, giving a Tiger Woods-style fist pump.
Williams served out the match to set up her matchup with Mauresmo. Even though Williams is unseeded and Mauresmo the top seed, Williams doesn't view herself as an underdog, or having to fight through a harder draw.
"I don't know anyone that sees my name next to theirs and gets really excited," Williams said. "I've never really cared [who I play], as long as I don't have to play Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal."
Mauresmo was little more than OK last night, pushed in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 match against Mara Santangelo. Her backhand got wild, and the gangly Italian used great groundstrokes to take the second set and a 2-0 lead in the third, just a break point away from making it 3-0 on the top seed. But Mauresmo went to net, and Santengelo's passing shot was out. Mauresmo held, then broke, and didn't lose another game.
Maria Sharapova drilled fellow Russian Elena Likhotseva, 6-3, 6-2. She still hasn't lost a set in three matches, and faces Li Na, who became the first Chinese woman to reach the round of 16 with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-0 upset over last year's runnerup Mary Pierce.
Copyright 2006 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
