Serena Williams into US Open fourth round after win over Johanna Larsson
Radwanska, Suarez Navarro, Halep also advance
Saturday 3 September 2016 21:12, UK
Serena Williams chalked up a record-breaking 307th career Grand Slam victory to book her place in the US Open last 16 with victory over Johanna Larsson.
Having drawn level with Martina Navratilova's mark with her win over Vania King, Williams was never troubled by her Swedish opponent as she claimed yet another record in her remarkable career, needing exactly an hour to win 6-2 6-1.
The world No 1 is chasing a seventh US Open title that would give her an Open-era record of 23 Grand Slam titles, one more than Steffi Graf, and having eased through her first two matches at Flushing Meadows it was more of the same on Saturday.
Despite some powerful exchanges, Larsson was unable to keep pace with Williams who took the first set in 36 minutes before upping the stakes in the second set to blow the world No 47 away.
The American powered to 4-1 lead in no time before breaking to love for a 5-1 advantage that became the set when Larsson fired a backhand long and Williams will next meet Yaroslava Shvedova after she beat China's Shuai Zhang 6-2 7-5.
Radwanska booked her place in the fourth round with a routine victory over French 25th seed Caroline Garcia, the Pole needed just 70 minutes to seal a 6-2 6-3 victory and a meeting with Ana Konjuh who saw off Varvara Lepchenko in three sets.
Elsewhere on day six in the women's draw, Carla Suarez Navarro celebrated his 28th birthday with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Elena Vesnina.
The Spanish 11th seed never looked in any trouble and despite being broken when serving for the match, she recovered to seal her place in the last 16 when she will face Simona Halep after the Romanian survived an epic battle with Timea Babos that took 2hrs 8mins on Arthur Ashe.
Halep stormed through the first set with an impressive display, only to be pegged back but her Hungarian opponent whose fearsome groundstrokes brought her back into the back with the second set and a 2-0 lead in the decider.
But Halep, seeded fifth, fought back in a final set that took more than an hour to seal a 6-1 2-6, 6-4 success, with a crucial break in the 10th game of the third set.
