Serena outclasses Stosur in Melbourne

World No.1 Serena Williams brought her game face to clinically end Samantha Stosur's
Australian Open campaign on Monday with a straight-sets fourth-round win at Rod
Laver Arena.
Williams broke Stosur three times to notch a comfortable 6-4 6-2 victory in just 65
minutes to storm into the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park for the seventh time in
11 visits.
The four-time Open champ next meets either Belarussian seventh seed Victoria
Azarenka or Russian ninth seed Vera Zvonareva on Wednesday for a place in the last
four of the season's first grand slam event.
Stosur, 25, had conquered Williams in their most recent meeting, in the
quarter-finals in Stanford last July but was no match for the American superstar
this time around.
In a dominant serving display, Williams crunched 10 aces to Stosur's four and
clubbed 20 clean winners to four to completely overwhelm Australia's world No.13.
Williams struck a lunging forehand winner to grab the decisive first-set break in
the fifth game and then nailed a backhand down the line to pocket the opening set in
32 minutes.
The 11-times major champion then broke Stosur in the very first game of the second
set with another backhand winner down the line.
Stosur's only look-in of the match came in the second game of the second set, but
Williams ruthlessly fended off the first three break points that she had faced all
tournament with three booming serves.
The American eventually held for a 2-0 lead with a big ace down the middle, and then
seized a double break for a 5-2 advantage and it was lights out for Stosur.
Williams said she knew she'd have to raise her game to get past Stosur.
"She is really one of the best servers in the game so it was always going to be
about serving and I haven't served that well except against (my sister) Venus,"
Williams said.
In a minor consolation for Stosur, the French Open semi-finalist is all but
guaranteed another career-high ranking despite her disappointing defeat.
Barring a series of unlikely upsets elsewhere in the draw, Stosur will climb to the
cusp of the world's top 10 following her run to the last 16 for the second time in
Melbourne.
Alicia Molik, who peaked at No.8 shortly after reaching the Open quarter-finals in
2005, is the only Australian woman in a quarter of a century to have cracked the
world's top 10.
Jelena Dokic was playing under the Serbian banner when she occupied the top 10 in 2001.