Serena Williams thumps Maria Kirilenko to reach the quarter-finals – Mutua Madrid Open 2013
Reigning world number one, Serena Williams, continued with her blasting run of form this season and powered her way into the quarter-final rounds of Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday. The American powerhouse hunted down the Russian beauty queen, Maria Kirilenko, in the third round, spending merely 64 minutes to wrap up her dominating victory in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1.
Williams was anticipated to overwhelm Kirilenko before even the match started. The American has been in her prime form since the last year and had won six consecutive encounters against the Russian. She has now imposed a 7-0 perfect record in the head-to-head series against Kirilenko and is highly bidding to claim the Madrid Open title.
The contest took off in a steady manner, with Kirilenko holding her initial serves with poise. The Russian was doing well enough to contain Williams until the top seeded American shifted her game to the rage mode. The scores were levelled at 3-3 when Williams took hold of the momentum and started to dictate her opponent. She drew first blood in the seventh game of the set and consolidated on it to reach 5-3.Another cracking break of serve in the very next game left Kirilenko stranded at 3-6 and Williams bagged the opening set comprehensively.
The following set was an all-American show, with Williams dominating every second of it. The top seed was off to a flying start to the second set and nailed two back-to-back break points to reach 4-0 in no time. A successful serve hold took Williams to an unassailable lead of 5-0. Kirilenko held her serve for the first time in the second set and took the scores to 1-5 but she couldn’t do anything to curtail her opponent’s lead. Williams simply served out of the match in the next game, sealing her third round victory with a breadstick, 6-1.
Williams will have to face the Spaniard wildcard, Anabel Medina Garrigues, in the quarter-final draw ofthe tournament. Garrigues got a walkover to the quarter-finals when the Kazakh number one, Yaroslava Shvedova, pulled out of the tournament due to injury.
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