Australian Open: Serena Williams topples Simona Halep, closing on 24!

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This was the sixth straight win for Williams over Halep and she had to work hard for it after the opening set that she claimed in 20 minutes, with Simona giving her best in the rest of the match, only to fall short. The Romanian scored just three wins after Cincinnati last year and she could lose the no.

1 position to Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova, Elina Svitolina or Karolina Pliskova, unlikely to stay at the top next Monday. Serena delivered better numbers behind the second serve and despite losing serve three times she had the upper hand after breaking her opponent on five occasions, winning almost every point at the net and firing 44 winners.

Halep had more winners than unforced errors as well but it wasnt enough in the end, wasting her chances in the sixth game of the final set and finishing her journey in the last 16. The match kicked off in the worst possible way for Serena, hitting a double fault to lose serve at love in the opening game before bouncing back a few minutes later when she erased the deficit with a backhand drive-volley winner.

In the rest of the set, the American was the only player on the court, sailing through the service games and playing equally good on the return to outplay the Romanian fair and square. Simona sprayed unforced errors to suffer a break in game four and Serena punished her weak second serve in game five with a return winner to move 5-1 up.

Serving for the set, the 23-time Grand Slam winner fired an ace in the next game to wrap up a fantastic opening set in just 20 minutes, looking good to topple the world no. 1 in a perfect manner. With no intentions of slowing down, Williams landed another forehand down the line winner in the third game of the second set to move another big step towards the finish line, forcing Simona to change things on the court drastically.

The Romanian broke back in the following game after a backhand error from Serena and she found the way to explore this wing more in the rest of the set, pushing her rival over the baseline and exploring an open space that secured another break in game 10 for a 6-4 and an impressive comeback.

The Romanian fends off a break point at the beginning of the deciding set to avoid an early upset and she had a colossal chance to move in front after three break points up for grabs in the sixth game.

With her back pushed against the wall, Serena repelled them with two service winners and another good point, securing the pivotal game with a backhand down the line winner and forging a 4-3 lead with a break in the next game that sealed Haleps fate in this match.

Serena made two good holds by the end of the match to book the place in the quarter-final and stay on the title course, facing Karolina Pliskova in the battle for the semis. <table