Djokovic, Williams win in straight sets in Australia

Serena Williams sent a warning to the rest of the field that she was still working towards her A-game as she charged into the Australian Open fourth round with a 6-1 6-1 demolition of Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina on Friday.

Playing a record 80th main draw match at Melbourne Park against an 18-year-old on her first trip Down Under, the American champion was merciless under the lights of Rod Laver Arena, blasting 24 winners and winning all 10 points coming into the net.

“I definitely think I played better today,” Williams told reporters of her 44-minute victory. “Everything I’ve been trying to work on was kind of clicking.

“I thought I played pretty well in the other matches. My first match I thought I gave a great effort,” she added of her first round victory over Italy’s Camila Giorgi.

Meanwhile Novak Djokovic continued his path to a potential Australian Open semi-final showdown with Roger Federer with a 6-1 7-5 7-6(6) third round victory over Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

The five-times Australian Open champion raced out to an opening 5-0 lead before Seppi, who beat Federer in four sets at the same stage last year, finally held his own serve though the Serb clinched the first set in 25 minutes in the next game.

Seppi, however, then rediscovered the form that troubled Federer so much last year and it was only successive lengthy rallies of 20 and 32 shots in the 11th game of the second set that enabled Djokovic to break, then serve out.

The pair remained on serve throughout an evenly matched third set until Djokovic saved two set points in the tiebreak to set up a fourth round clash with 14th seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon.

Tomas Berdych overcame a third set scare against Nicholas Kyrgios, winning 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

Kyrgios mixed the sublime with the ridiculous, producing an astonishing winner in the third before giving up the match with a double fault.

The Australian Open continued to be an unhappy hunting ground for Marin Cilic as the former U.S. Open champion perished in the third round in a 6-4 7-6(5) 7-5 defeat by Roberto Bautista Agut.

The Croatian 12th seed fired down 15 aces and belted 46 winners but that was not enough to topple his Spanish rival, who capitalised on Cilic’s 55 unforced errors to equal his best showing at Melbourne Park.

Since reaching the semi-finals at the Open in 2010, Cilic has failed to make it past the fourth round and will be disappointed that he missed out on a last 16 showdown with either Australian firecracker Nick Kyrgios or Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych.

Elswhere, Japan’s Kei Nishikori made it through to the fourth round, defeating Guillermo Garcia Lopez 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.