Quarterfinals set in Madrid, Serena keeps piling up milestones

Women’s Tennis Blog’s photographer Jimmie48 is done with Madrid, having shot dozens of emotional and lively action photos from the claycourts of the Premier Mandatory tournament, but stay tuned, next week he’s packing his gear again and hitting the road to Nürnberg, in his native Germany. In the meantime, I will take over the coverage of the late rounds of the Mutua Madrid Open and the next week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

Today we got another milestone in women’s tennis, and no surprise it’s been achieved by Serena Williams – by recording a 6-2 6-3 third-round victory over red hot Carla Suarez Navarro, who had won her maiden WTA title last week in Oeiras, the American piled up the 650th win of her super rich career. Plus, can you believe that Serena hasn’t lost to a Spanish player since 1999? Don’t ever try to type out Serena’s list of achievements and print it out, we could really run out of trees! No wonder she was so confidently posing for May’s issue of Fitness Magazine.

Wearing her grey Nike Women’s Summer Novelty Tank and a classic black skirt, Serena will next meet the recently single Petra Kvitova, who recovered from 4-0 down against Lucie Safarova to win 6-4 6-3 and reach the quarterfinals.

Agnieszka Radwanska smoothly beat Roberta Vinci 6-1 6-1, a day after saving three match points against colorfully clad Svetlana Kuznetsova. Next for the Pole is for her unfamiliar opponent – Caroline Garcia, who surprised Sara Errani 6-2 4-6 6-3.

The Madrid quarters will also feature a battle of two Grand Slam champions – Maria Sharapova and Li Na – who have both triumphed on the clay of Roland Garros. Li escaped Sam Stosur, whom she has never beaten in six career meetings, and Sharapova had to deal with her in the third round, taking her out 6-4 6-3, while Li beat Sloane Stephens 2-6 6-3 6-2.

Ana Ivanovic scored her 26th match win of the season, the fastest she has made that many wins in a season ever, losing just three games to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Ivanovic’s obstacle to the semifinals will be Simona Halep, who beat Sabine Lisicki 5-7 6-3 6-2 in the last third-round match on Thursday.