New York: World No.1 Serena Williams eased into the third round with a decisive win over American wildcard Vania King at the US Open. The top seed won the match 6-3, 6-3.
"I just think it should have been a different scoreline for me. I feel like I made a lot of errors. But, you know, there's nothing I can do about that now. What really matters is I got the win. Hopefully I'll just get better,” Serena said in her post-match press conference.
She will now play Sweden's Johanna Larsson, a semifinalist at last week's Connecticut Open. Larsson dispatached Ana Ivanovic's conqueror Denisa Allertova, 6-3, 6-1, to set up the the third round encounter. A win over Larsson would guarantee Serena passes Martina Navratilova's record of 306 Grand Slam wins; she tied the record on Thursday.
No.5 seed Simona Halep won the first ever women's match under Arthur Ashe's new roof with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lucie Safarova on Thursday afternoon. Halep will continue her bid for a maiden Grand Slam title against Timea Babos after she saw off Richel Hogenkamp, 6-2, 6-4.
Meanwhile, Venus Williams recorded her 70th match win at the US Open to beat Julia Goerges in straight sets and clinch a spot in the third round. The No.6 seed eased her way into the third round, winning 6-2, 6-3.
In other matches Varvara Lepchenko prevailed over Timea Bacsinszky in their second-round clash, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, while No.4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska survived a scare against Great Britain's Naomi Broady to move into the third round at the US Open, 7-6(9), 6-3. Zhang Shuai got the better of No. 16 Samantha Stosur 6-3, 6-3.