Serena unlikely to mentor U.S. opponent

Andy Murray faces rival who defeated him last year while Serena Williams comes across youthful American ambition.

Off Court At The 2013 Australian Open
Williams' next opponent is American Sloane Stephens (pictured) who reached grand slam quarters for first time [GETTY]

Serena Williams comes face to face with the next generation of U.S. tennis when she takes on 19-year-old Sloane Stephens in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Wednesday.

Stephens secured her maiden appearance in a grand slam quarter-final with a composed three-set win over Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski and further impressed with her wise-cracking performance in an on-court interview after the match.

Joking about her nervous relatives and the $262,600 prize money, Stephens also told the crowd at Hisense Arena that Williams had told her to grunt “louder”, a reference to the 15-times grand slam champion’s sometimes ear-splitting shrieks during play.

“It’s hard to be a real mentor when you’re still in competition”

Serena Williams

Much has been made of Williams’s reported role as mentor to the 29th seed but the off-the-cuff comment continued a bit of banter from the teenager at the world number three’s expense, carrying on from their heated match at the Brisbane International earlier this month.

Eventual champion Williams won the match in two sets but Stephens took the fight to the 31-year-old and was irked by her fist-pumping exhortations after winning big points. 

Stephens told her coach that Williams was being ‘disrespectful’ during a change of ends, but later played down the comment as a joke.

With a sixth title at Melbourne Park on the line, Williams has backed away from the mentor role, saying she felt no responsibility toward Stephens. 

“It’s hard to be a real mentor when you’re still in competition,” said Williams, who strolled into their clash with a 6-2 6-0 thrashing of 14th seed Maria Kirilenko.

“Once he was too aggressive and emotional, but now he’s choosing his shots a lot better.”

Chardy also beat the 25-year-old Scot at the Cincinnati Masters in their last match and is certain to offer him more competition than 14th seed Gilles Simon, who could hardly run in their three-set match, having exhausted himself in a near-five hour marathon in the previous round.

The winner will book a semi-final against either Roger Federer or seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who play in the evening session at Rod Laver Arena.

Federer destroyed the Frenchman in three sets the last time they played at Melbourne Park in the 2010 semi-finals, but Tsonga avenged the defeat the following year at Wimbledon, when he stunned the 17-times grand slam champion in the quarter-finals.

It has all been one-way traffic since, however, with Federer winning their past four encounters, leaving aside a walkover at the 2012 tournament in Doha when the Swiss pulled out injured.

Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, needing to defend her title successfully to preserve her world number one ranking, kicks off the action

Source: Reuters