Tennis: Serena Williams, Johanna Konta through to the next round of the Western and Southern Open

Serena Williams overcame a scare and was forced to grind out a win against Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus, to reach the Western and Southern Open third round in New York.

Williams needed to draw from all her experience and survival instincts to overcome Rus in a game that lasted almost 3 hours and ensured that she did not join them at the exit.

“I thought I played pretty well. I was being aggressive and hitting good shots. She just kept fighting. I don’t know, honestly,” says 38-year-old Williams.

“If I can do this, then whoa. I trained really hard. I was surprised I was tired, but it was really physical.”

Williams, however, put up anything far from a convincing display and appeared to struggle in the New York heat in the second set, failing to serve out victory at 5-3 in the deciding set.

Serena Williams, currently ranked ninth in the world, and will hope to secure a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title when the US Open starts on 31 August at Flushing Meadows.

It will be the first major since the professional tours resumed earlier this month, having been suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Western and Southern Open is usually held in Cincinnati but has been moved to Flushing Meadows to create a two-tournament safety bubble.

Williams seeded third, is the highest-ranked player left in the draw after Czech top seed Karolina Pliskova and American Sofia Kenin lost their opening matches.

She will play Greece’s 13th seed Maria Sakkari in the third round of the Southern & Western Open.

In other matchups, fourth seed Naomi Osaka of Japan beat Karolina Muchova 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-2.

The world number 10 was playing her first match since the WTA resumed after it was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Osaka will face 16th seed Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in round three.

Johanna Konta was impressive against Kirsten Flipkens

British No 1 Johanna Konta, who suffered heart palpitations during a tournament in Kentucky just two weeks ago, crushed Kirsten Flipkens 6-2 6-0 to cruise to the next round in New York, after a near faultless display without facing a single breakpoint in the match.

Konta says “I’m really pleased to have got a win,”

“Obviously it’s the first one since Monterrey, which was six months ago, a long time ago.”

Just a fortnight ago, Konta had to seek medical help during her first-round exit at the Lexington Open, in what was her first competitive match since lockdown began in March.

“I haven’t gone for any more tests since then,” she said. “I think they will happen more when I’m at home…

“Obviously I had two episodes reasonably close together, but before that, I hadn’t experienced in since 2018. So I think there is plenty of room to give it when it probably won’t happen, knock on wood, for a long time again.”

Konta will next face Vera Zvonareva after the veteran Russian rolled back the years to upset Laura Siegemund 6-1 6-1.