Serena Williams captures late-night match at U.S. Open

NEW YORK, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Serena Williams waited until almost midnight to begin her match Friday and then swept past Yaroslava Shvedova in the third round of the U.S. Open.

Williams, the world's No. 1 player and the defending champion, took the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium after a match between Lleyton Hewitt and Juan Martin Del Potro went on and on.

Hewitt eventually won in five sets and the crowd had thinned by the time Williams and Shvedova took the court.

Williams recorded a 6-3, 6-1 victory to move her into the round of 16 against fellow American Sloan Stephens, who earlier defeated Jamie Hampton 6-1, 6-3.

Agnieszka Radwanska and Li Na also picked up third-round wins Friday.

Radwanska, seeded third, needed nearly 2 hours to get by 32nd-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-6 (7-1). She dropped her serve once in each set but had a pair of breaks of her own to win the first set and survived the tiebreaker in the second to advance.

Li, the No. 5 seed, knocked out 30th-seeded Laura Robson, winning more than two-thirds of the points on serve and allowing Robson just two break opportunities. Li went 9-for-9 on points when she approached the net.

In other third-round matches Friday, Carla Suarez Navarro defeated Zheng Jie 6-3, 6-4, Angelique Kerber was a 6-0, 6-4 winner over Kaia Kanepi, Ekaterina Makarova took out Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) and Jelena Jankovic defeated Kurumi Nara 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).