A fired up Serena Williams has advanced to the third round of the Yarra Valley Classic after a commanding 6-1 6-4 win over Australia's Daria Gavrilova.
Up against her idol, Gavrilova overcame a poor finish to the opening set to give a good account of herself in the second, but was no match for Williams.
Having looked somewhat laboured at the Australian Open in recent years, Williams looked somewhere close to her best, lashing her ground-strokes with power all over the court.
Despite a minimal crowd being in attendance, there was plenty of sound on Margaret Court Arena, with both players letting out yells of frustration at points in the match.
Not one to hide her emotions on the court, Gavrilova boiled over after conceding a break to Williams in the opening set, thrashing her racquet on the court, and she did not recover losing the remaining games in the set.
The Australian upped the ante in the second set and seemingly caused Williams to take her game up a notch as well in a tightly-contested set.
Following the win, Williams admitted that she had gotten in the "zone" to pull through.
"I felt that I was definitely composed and in a zone," she said after the win.
"I'm just trying to do the things that I've been working on so it was good."
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