Australian Open 2021 Day 3 – Serena Williams beat Nina Stojanović in Australian Open second round: Former world number one Serena Williams continued her dominating show in the Australian Open as she thrashed Nina Stojanović 6-3, 6-0 in one hour and nine minutes on Rod Laver Arena to enter the third round of the tournament on Wednesday.
Williams was challenged in the first set before winning 6-3 but she went to a new level after that and Stojanovic was powerless to slow her down as the American huffed and puffed and blew down Stojanovic’s house in that second set capping off a 6-0 set with an ace.
23-Grand Slam winner Williams needed 44 minutes to win the tough opening set against the unseeded Serb, but only needed 25 minutes to claim the second.
Serena will now face promising 19-year-old Russian Anastasia Potapova in the next round.
Australian Open 2021 Day 3 – Bianca Andreescu lose to Hsieh Su-wei
Bianca Andreescu’s return to tennis was cut short as she suffered a straight-sets defeat in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday against Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei. Bianca, who came back after a 15-month absence from tennis, lost 3-6, 2-6.
Notably, Andreescu hadn’t played a match for 15 months because of injuries and she was one of 72 players who could not leave their hotel rooms, even to train, for two weeks due to hard quarantine. Yet, she passed her first-round test on Monday, a three-set nail-biter against Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania.
However, Bianca looked out of sorts from the start in the second round and she attacked with her typical abandon at Rod Laver Arena but found a brick wall in the form of the double-handed Hsieh, who drove the Canadian to distraction with her defence.
With no apparent plan B, Andreescu doubled down on the power game and had 25 unforced errors as she slumped to a 5-2 deficit in the second set.
Andreescu saved two match points on serve but bowed out meekly with a double-fault on the third as Hsieh advanced to a third-round clash against Venus Williams or Sara Errani.
Interestingly, Hsieh, who is No. 71 in the world, is known for knocking off top players in Grand Slam tournaments, having previously beaten Garbiñe Muguruza at the Australian Open and Simona Halep at Wimbledon.