Williams Sisters Storm Through, Safina Struggles!

August 30th, 2008 New York City, USA

The sixth day of competition kicked off at Flushing Meadows, with half of the grandslam just about complete and the other half to come, the Williams sisters and Dinara Safina, were all in action today trying to get further at the last slam of the season.

The Williams sisters would begin on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Venus Williams was taking on Alona Bondarenko. Bondarenko can be a tricky opponent to play against but it was all Williams today. The heat and humidity did not bother her at all as she blasted through the match with a 6-2, 6-1 score. Venus will have to work hard in her next match against talented Polish player, Agnieszka Radwanska who was also an easy winner today.

Serena Williams was in action third on Arthur Ashe Stadium and had something to prove as well. Playing against crafty Ai Sugiyama, Serena looked as good as she has all tournament, almost as good as she was against Vesnina the other night. Serena over powered and outclassed Sugiyama with a 6-2, 6-1 victory and now moves on to take on the winner of the Bremond and Garbin match that was still going on at the time this was written.

Dinara Safina struggled to find her form during the night session. Losing the first set 6-3 to Timea Bacsinszky, she barely came back in the secon set and won 7-5. The final set was all Safina as she took the set and the match 6-2. It was the first bad match from Safina since her loss at the Olympics and looked vulnerable.

Tomorrow the first half of the Round of 16 matches take place with Jankovic taking on talented Wozniacki as the most anticipated match along with Dementieva taking on Na Li.

Results:

Arthur Ashe Stadium:

(7)Venus Williams d. (27)Alona Bondarenko - 6-2, 6-1
(4)Serena Williams d. (30)Ai Sugiyama - 6-2, 6-1
(6)Dinara Safina d. Timea Bacsinszky - 3-6, 7-5, 6-2
Louis Armstrong Stadium:

(32)Amelie Mauresmo d. Julie Coin - 6-4, 6-4

Grandstand:

(9)Agnieszka Radwanska d. (18)Dominika Cibulkova - 6-0, 6-3
Severine Bremond vs. Tathiana Garbin - TBA

Top 10 Seeds:

1. Ana Ivanovic - Lost in Round 2 (Coin)
2. Jelena Jankovic - Round of 16
3. Svetlana Kuznetsova - Lost in Round 3 (Srebotnik)
4. Serena Williams - Round of 16
5. Elena Dementieva - Round of 16
6. Dinara Safina - Round of 16
7. Venus Williams - Round of 16
8. Vera Zvonareva - Lost in Round 2 (Perebiynis)
9. Agnieszka Radwanska - Round of 16
10. Anna Chakvetadze - Lost in Round 1 (Makarova)