Serena Williams Wins 500th Career Match, Enters 3rd Round Of 2012 Australian Open

Serena Williams defeated Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, won her 500th career match and floated into the 3rd round on the Australian Open on Thursday.

Williams hit a strong backhand down the line after falling to the ground on the previous point. That backhand was enough to give Williams a 6-0, 6-4 victory.

With her win Serena Williams now holds an impressive record of 500-104 in touch matches. The win is also the tennis stars 16th consecutive match win at Melbourne Park.

If Williams manages to pull of a win once against it will be her sixth Australian Open trophy out of 14 Grand Slam titles.

After leaving the match she said of her ankle which cause her to stumble towards the end of match play:

“It’s totally fine. It was my good ankle, so I’m good.” while adding, “There was no extra pain. I twisted it. But it’s all taped up, so the tape really, really helped.”

Assuring her fans that it was just a case of “wobbly ankles” she said during a TV interview:

“I wasn’t meant to be a ballerina or anything.”

Also advancing was No. 2 Petra Kvitova who moved into the third round after a slightly tougher match against Carla Suarez Navarro in which she went 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

In other advancement news Maria Sharapova easily won her 2nd round match over U.S. qualifier Jamie Hampton, the 2008 champion took the match in 64 minutes with a final score of 6-0 and 6-1.

Do you have a favorite player to win the 2012 Australian Open women’s single record this year?