Sunday 25 January 2015 07:15, UK
World No 1 and top seed Serena Williams took time to wake up before joining resurgent sister Venus and men's defending champion Stan Wawrinka and top seed Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open fourth round.
The American top seed, vying for a sixth Australian title and her first since 2010, was slow to get in the groove against 26th-ranked Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, going down 6-4 in the first set.
But she shook off the cobwebs under the blazing sun on Rod Laver Arena to rattle through the next two sets 6-2 6-0.
It keeps alive her quest to add a 19th Grand Slam title, which would take her to clear second on the all-time Open Era Grand Slam winners list.
Serena will now play face Spain's Garbine Muguruza, who beat Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky 6-3 4-6 6-0. The 24th seed upset the American at the French Open last year.
Did you know ... Serena currently has 18 major titles alongside Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and is four behind German great Steffi Graf's 22.
"When in doubt just start running as fast as you can, that's what Venus always told me, that helped," said Williams, whose world No 1 ranking is on the line if she fails to win the tournament.
She added that her sister's late-career renaissance was an inspiration after she came through against Italy's Camila Giorgi in three sets.
"She's winning, she's doing so well and I can do better. We always motivate each other. I'm so proud of her and we're so excited."
Did you know ... It was a day to remember for the Williams' sisters with Venus making the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon 2011.
The Williams sisters have met eight times in major finals, with Serena holding a 6-2 edge over Venus. An all-Williams final can't happen this year at Melbourne Park, but a semi-final is still possible.
In the final match of the day, fourth seed and Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova became the biggest casualty of the women's singles so far as she lost in straight sets to American teenager Madison Keys.
Keys won 6-4 7-5 on Rod Laver Arena to set up a last-16 clash with fellow American Madison Brengle.
World No 35 Keys, who will celebrate her 20th birthday next month, is coached by three-time major winner Lindsay Davenport and Davenport's husband Jon Leach.
"Lindsay and Jon have been amazing," she added. "It's been a great off-season, I learned a lot and I'm just really happy they are here supporting me."
Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska, guided by legendary Martina Navratilova, also made it through.
Radwanska will meet Venus on Monday and it's a match she is looking forward to.
"I think playing her is always great challenge," Radwanska said. "I think she is still playing great tennis even she's a bit older. She's still really fit and playing a high level.
"I think it's going to be another good match."
Fellow world No 1 Djokovic came through against huge-hitting former top-10 player Fernando Verdasco, with the Serb's chances of a fifth Australian crown improving after Roger Federer's shock exit on Friday.
The Serb won an entertaining encounter 7-6 (10-8) 6-3 6-4 to set up a fourth round clash with Luxembourg's Gilles Muller after the world No 42 upset big-serving John Isner 7-6 (6-4) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.
After his victory, Djokovic celebrated his mother Dijana's birthday by singing 'Happy Birthday' along with 15,000 on Rod Laver Arena.
"It's my mum's birthday, can you sing happy birthday?" he asked the crowd. He sang the whole song live on camera and strolled off court with a wave.
US Open finalist Kei Nishikori is getting to know American Steve Johnson well mostly from the other side of the net. The two had played each other twice in the past seven months, including at the Brisbane International two weeks ago and they met again in Melbourne on Saturday.
The Japanese trailblazer was given a tough first set workout against 25-year-old Californian, before coming through in four, 6-7 (7-9) 6-1 6-2 6-3.
He will next play the man known as 'The Roadrunner' David Ferrer after the Spaniard grafted out a four-sets win over Frenchman Gilles Simon.
Ferrer, a two-time semi-finalist, downed the 18th seeded Simon 6-2 7-5 5-7 7-6 (7-4).
Wawrinka, who beat Rafael Nadal in the final last year, could meet Djokovic in the semi-finals and stayed on track with a 6-4 6-2 6-4 drubbing of Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.
The Swiss, who was always in control, was pleased with his progress so far.
"It's been three really good matches, I think my game is there and I'm really happy to get through again," said Wawrinka, who will next meet Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez who said he was looking forward to playing after a "tough loss" to him in the fourth round at last year's French Open.
Swiss star Wawrinka has earned several nicknames with Stan the Man, Stanimal, and Stantastic among them.
He came into his post-match press conference wearing a loud red Stan the Man T-shirt and said he had earned the right to show it off. "It's fun to have a shirt like this. For this you have to play good and I'm here to win matches." One wag asked him how much for the T-shirt, to which he replied: "I can sell you one if you want."
Eighth seed Canadian Milos Raonic also went through, sweeping aside Germany's Benjamin Becker in straight sets.
The Canadian hit 46 winners and only 19 unforced errors, while Becker made just 21 winners.
After his match, Raonic revealed that he weighs less in the morning. About 2 kilos (4 to 5 pounds) less than later in the day.
"If you ask me right now, after I ate a sandwich, probably four kilos (8 pounds). If you ask me first thing in the morning probably six (13 pounds)," said the eighth-ranked player.
Raonic said he's been on a gluten-free diet for about two years, but the recent weight loss came from scaling back on quantity.
"I would order three things and eat until I couldn't eat no more," he said. "Now I have a better moderation."
The order of play has been announced for Sunday in Melbourne and British No 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray will be last on Rod Laver Arena in the night match against Bulgarian dangerman Grigor Dimitrov.
Expect the players to be out on court at around 9am (GMT). This will be one not to miss!
