US Open Tennis 2011 Results: Serena Williams Defeats Michaella Krajicek

Serena Williams didn't have much trouble moving past the first round at the U.S. Open, as she easily dispatched Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-1.

But on Wednesday, the key storyline involving the Williams family was the sudden withdrawal of Serena's older sister, Venus. She called it quits before her second-round tilt, citing a recent diagnosis of Sjogren’s Syndrome—an autoimmune condition that causes fatigue and joint pain.

With the knowledge of that in the back of her mind, you had to at least wonder if Serena was going to be a little distracted in her second-round match against Michaella Krajicek.

Well, let's take a look.

Result

If Serena was at all distracted against Krajicek, it certainly didn't show. She dominated from the word "go," taking the first set without dropping a single game. In the second set, she dropped just one game. And that was that.

The statistics definitely tell tales of dominance. Serena had 10 aces, just 10 unforced errors and also 25 winners to Krajicek's five. The first set took just 22 minutes, and the second took just 27. Had you decided to blink for an hour, you would have missed it.

The match was so one-sided, in fact, that the key highlight was probably what happened when Krajicek, half-sister of former Wimbledon champ Richard Krajicek, finally won a game in the second set. The crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium stood and applauded.

The winner: Serena, 6-0, 6-1.

Storyline

If I may drop the "D" word again, this one was all about dominance. That's something that we obviously used to see on a consistent basis from Serena, but you get the sense that you have to savor Serena's dominance every time you see it nowadays.

Of course, we can take it for granted that Serena is not going to be content with two convincing victories. She wants Grand Slam No. 14, and it's looking right now like she could get it.

Next Up for Serena Williams

It's not going to get any easier for Serena in the third round. After beating up on Jovanovski and Krajicek, she now has to face world No. 5 Victoria Azarenka. It's a good thing Serena was able to save so much energy in the first two rounds, because Azarenka is not going to be easy to beat.

In fact, Williams said (via the tournament's official site) that she will "definitely be the underdog" against Azarenka.

Well, if she says so. But Azarenka would be wise not to agree with her next opponent.