Serena Williams takes on Angelique Kerber for a semi-final berth – Western & Southern Open 2012
Olympic gold medallist, Serena Williams, has carried on her winning ways at the US Open Series tournament at Cincinnati by booking a berth in the quarter-final rounds of the Western & Southern Open. She hammered down the Pole tennis
sensation, Urszula Radwanska, in the third round of the coveted WTA Premier 5 event on Thursday.
The second seeded American powerhouse registered a thumping 6-4, 6-3, victory in straight sets, taking just 70 minutes of play to reach the final-eight. It was yet another dominating performance from the 30-year-old veteran, who
now leads 4-0 in the head-to-head series against Radwanska. Serena is riding her sublime run of form this season and is bidding for her sixth WTA championship title at Cincinnati.
"Ula was playing really great tennis here. It was her fifth match of the week,” said Serena after dumping Radwanska in the third round “Sometimes the fifth match is the final, so for sure she wasn't that fresh. But losing against
Serena can even be a good experience. I don't know what she's going to say about the match after, but I think she really played well."
The American number one is all set to take on the German tennis ace, Angelique Kerber, in the quarter-final brawl on Friday afternoon. The world number seven has also been the fastest rising tennis star of the running season but
she will certainly have to pull out an absolute blinder to hunt down the dominating American in the quarter-finals. She was troubled in by the Czech qualifier, Andrea Hlavackova, in the third round of the tournament but the German settled the clash in straight
sets in the end, finishing off at 6-4, 7-6(5) to book a date with Serena in the quarter-finals.
Kerber and Serena have met only once before and it was back in 2007 at the US Open Championships. The American stood victorious against the German underdog on that occasion to lead 1-0 in the head-to-head series but it will be
a whole new battle between these two on Friday. Kerber was ranked at number 67 at the time of their first encounter but has now broken into the elite Top-10 among the women professionals. Her game and strategies have immensely improved during the past one
year and she has already bagged two WTA championship titles this season. Although Serena will remain the hot favourite for winning the upcoming battle, left-handed Kerber will not prove easy bait for her.
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