Unlike her sister Venus, who was crushed by in-form Maria Sharapova in the third round, for the second straight match Serena Williams hit a near-record serve and cruised to the fourth round of the Australian Open with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Ayumi Morita. Serena sealed her second-round match with a 207 kmh ace and in her latest encounter she repeated such a fast serve. Converted into miles per hour, that's 128.6, and the record, currently held by Venus Williams, is 129 mph.

Top seed Victoria Azarenka was greatly tested in her third round against Jamie Hampton, who may have pulled off an upset had she not sustained a lower back injury. Playing at that stage of a Grand Slam for the first time, Hampton drew the crowd to her side with her undying determination and powerful groundstrokes. She forced the third set and even went up a break in it, but the defending champion prevailed 6-4 4-6 6-2, despite trailing Hampton 17 to 41 in the winners department.

The fourth round is now all set up. Let's see who's facing whom: Read more »

At the previous Grand Slam, the 2012 US Open, Laura Robson made it to the fourth round by upsetting Li Na and Kim Clijsters on the way, and now she's through to the third round of the Australian Open, having taken out Wimbledon champion and eighth seed Petra Kvitova 2-6 6-3 11-9 in a match that finished after midnight local time.

Kvitova finished the match in which, according to her own words, her serve was worse than ever, and 18 double faults surely confirm the Czech's resentment at herself, although 18 aces did provide a good counter-balance. In the third set Kvitova built a 3-0 lead, playing the best tennis of the match, but the 18-year-old Robson then broke her three times to go up 6-5. Kvitova broke back again and a few upcoming games went with serve until Robson again took her opponent's serve and held to love to advance to the third round of a Grand Slam for the second time in her career.

The new face of Adidas by Stella McCartney next plays Sloane Stephens for a chance to avenge her last week's Hobart loss to the American 19-year-old. It's been their only career meeting so far. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Top seed Victoria Azarenka and third seed Serena Williams won their second-round matches at the Australian Open with decisive scorelines, 6-1 6-0 and 6-2 6-0 respectively.

The 23-year-old defending champion Azarenka confidently defeated Eleni Daniilidou, who had won their only previous meeting five years ago, and in the third round she will face Jamie Hampton, the only player who held a set point, in Auckland semifinals, against the most successful player of 2013, Agnieszka Radwanska, who is 22-0 in sets won this season.

Not troubled by the ankle she twisted in the previous round, Williams progressed past Garbine Muguruza, but only after accidentally smashing herself in the face with her racquet, again while hitting a forehand.

I think it happens to everyone, but I have never busted it wide open like that. So, yeah, I was like, Oh, no. I can’t have a tooth fall out. That would be horrible. I don’t know why my racket was even in my face. I mean, it’s like I have been playing tennis far too long to hit myself.

Despite the mishaps, the powerful Serena sealed the match with a 207km/h (128mp/h) ace! The American next plays Ayumi Morita as she continues her bid for a 16th Grand Slam title and sixth in Australia. (via Beyond the Baseline, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Samantha Stosur's horror story at her home Grand Slam continued when the Australian blew a 5-2 lead in the third set to succumb to Zheng Jie  6-4 1-6 7-5 in the second round of the Australian Open. Stosur has now lost seven of her last nine matches in Australia (including the first rounds in Brisbane and Sydney this year) and has never been past the fourth round at Melbourne Park in eleven tries.

Stosur dropped the first set in 54 minutes, but her 5-2 lead in the third set made it look like she was on a good way to victory before the bad statistical fact that she had won only six Grand Slam matches from 37 tries after losing the first set came to haunt her. Stosur twice failed to serve it out and then dropped serve yet again, giving out the match with a double fault. Interestingly, Zheng has won four matches since Tokyo last year and two of them against Stosur.

The loss of Australian highest-ranked player makes the Australian Open women's singles draw without home players after Day 3.

Maria Sharapova advanced to the third round with her second straight double bagel! Actually, she's the first woman to have done so at a Grand Slam since 1985, before Sharapova was even born! In the first round her victim was Olga Puchkova in 55 minutes and today Misaki Doi in 47 minutes. Can you believe this: Sharapova has lost an average of just 1.5 games per match in the first week of non-grass majors in 2012/2013! (sources: Sydney Morning Herald, Chris Skelton's Twitter, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

While Maria Sharapova is scrutinized for producing a candy brand high in sugar, Victoria Azarenka has become the promoter of Red Bull, the most popular energy drink in the world. The Belarusian, who is now under a multiyear contract with the company, is the first tennis player to be associated with the beverage giant.

I am really excited to be part of the Red Bull family. I've always enjoyed the product and admired how they have worked with their athletes.

Red Bull is now added to the world No.1's list of sponsors which includes: Nike, Six Star Pro Nutrition, American Express, Tourna Grip, Citizen Eco-Drive and Wilson. (source: ESPN)