Serena Williams is back in action after winning AP Athlete of the Year and now she is into the quarterfinals in the Brisbane International tennis tournament and Maria Sharapova has played through as well and Williams ended up with a straight sets win that was a bit sloppy but enough to move through to the next round and now she will play against Dominika Cibulkova at 9:45 pm ET and she comes in ninth on the bracket.
Williams looked a bit sloppy in her earlier matches and she had 36 unforced errors in her first match of the season and now she is looking to get her first tournament victory of the year down under before the first grand slam of the season starts on January 13 and last year she started off her amazing season with a win here and she could do it again this time around. Williams won 11 titles last season and that included a couple of Grand Slams to go along with it an now she can continue her WTA dominance into another calendar year and that would be very impressive for the American star and her opponent comes in tired after playing a long match against the 43-year-old that went three sets and now Williams will look to start the season with a win in Australia and the Open finals could come against Victoria Azarenka and this comes after Williams lost to Sloane Stephens and she will be looking to put that behind her for good.
Williams only lost four times last season and she has the chance to get off to a good start again and some of the other players looking to move along in Brisbane includes Jelena Jankovic as well as Sharapova and Lleyton Hewitt on the men's side and Roger Federer also got off to a nice start to the season as he tries to win a grand slam after not getting one last year for the first time in quite a while.
Check here for the Serena Williams Brisbane coverage and schedule for the tournament.
Here is a look at Serena Williams at the Brisbane International tournament and it's the start of the 2014 season before the Australian Open and the star will try and continue into a second year of dominance after winning the US Open and here is a look from Reuters.com Serena Williams looked rusty in her first competitive match of the season ahead of the Australian Open but battled through to beat Andrea Petkovic 6-4 6-4 at the Brisbane International on Tuesday.
The number one seed won in 98 minutes to reach the quarter-finals but her 36 unforced errors and 55 percent serving accuracy showed how much Williams has to work on with the first grand slam of 2014 less than a fortnight away.
German Petkovic was exactly what the defending champion needed at this point in the season. Ranked 43rd in the world, but a top-10 player before injuries hampered her 2012 campaign, she ensured the five-times Australian Open winner had to fight for every point.
"It was an intense match, which was really good for me," Williams told reporters. "She's a good player. She's been in the top 10 before and she was on her way to being even better."
In their only previous match Petkovic took the American to three sets, on clay in Rome in 2010, and looked capable of doing so again after nullifying an early break and taking a 4-3 lead in the first set.
Williams held her serve to love and an easy missed volley into the net gifted the 17-times grand slam winner a break in the next, leading to Petkovic slamming her racket into thigh, floor and bag in turn.
In her first tournament match since the 2013 WTA Championships in October, Williams showed frustration throughout at the extent of her erratic play.
There were serves fired in at over 190 kilometers and 35 crunching winners, but even more mistakes.
After errant serves she would often practice her ball toss or technique, reinforcing the sessions spent with her father, Richard, in Florida during the off-season. Her most glaring error came in the sixth game of the second set when a looping backhand from Petkovic landed just over the net to set up an easy winner but Williams was fooled by prodigious backspin and wildly missed the ball with a forehand.
The crowd at Pat Rafter Arena roared with laughter and even Williams smiled, briefly. Serena Williams' inconsistent displays are usually accompanied by angry self-chastisement, but the greater fear of her ankles not surviving through January saw the world number one in phlegmatic mood despite her far-from-perfect first WTA outing of the season.
In 2012, Williams' left ankle forced her to pull out of the Brisbane International and led to an early departure from the Australian Open when she was beaten by American compatriot Sloane Stephens. Petkovic surrendered a 40-0 lead on serve in the fifth game of the second set, which the world number one ended up taking.
The German saved the first match point on her serve, but a forehand into the net in the following game gave Williams victory.
Williams next plays ninth-seed Slovakian Daniele Cibulkova who defeated Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3 1-6 6-3.
Williams's slated semi-final opponent Maria Sharapova has a bye to the last eight after Australian Ashleigh Barty pulled out with an adductor injury.
On the other side of the draw, fourth seed Jelena Jankovic beat Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-3, keeping the Serb on course for a semi-final meeting with defending Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka.
In the men's tournament, home favorite Lleyton Hewitt held off a spirited challenge from young compatriot and qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis.
The 17-year-old saved 10 of 12 break points in the first set before succumbing 6-3 and was 5-3 up in the second, only for the veteran to win four straight games to take the match.
The twice grand slam winner faces sixth-seed Feliciano Lopez in the third round, after the Spaniard defeated Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in straight sets.
(Reuters)