Melbourne, Jan 17 (IANS) Top-seed Romanian Simona Halep and Venus Williams of the United States set up a third round clash at the Australian Open after beating American Sofia Kenin and France's Alize Kornet respectively in their second round matches here on Thursday.
World No. 1 Halep overcame a spirited challenge from Kenin - who won the second set in a tie-breaker and even broke Halep's service in the third - to register a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4 win in two hours and 31 minutes, reports Efe news.
"I have no idea how I won this tonight. It was a very tough one, she's an amazing player," Halep said in her on-court interview after the match.
Williams also dropped a set and had to work hard to get past Cornet with a scoreline of 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.
The American acknowledged Halep's calibre ahead of the high-profile clash, set to take place on Saturday.
"She's very consistent on the court and in her results. So throughout the year, she's playing at a really high level. That's what keeps her ranking up," Williams said in a post-match interview.
Halep, the runner-up in Melbourne last year after losing to Dane Caroline Wozniacki, has a 2-3 record against Williams, although the Romanian has won the last two meetings between the two.
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz