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Miami - World No 1 Serena Williams was rolling Saturday, even before she got to her third-round match against Ayumi Morita at the Miami ATP Masters and WTA hardcourt tournament.
The American, seeking a record sixth Miami WTA crown, resorted to some unfamiliar transportation - a bicycle - to beat the traffic into Key Biscayne and make her match.
"The traffic was crazy and everyone was like, I have been here for an hour and I'm staying like eight minutes away," Williams said. "They were in the traffic for an hour. I'm like, 'OK, I'm not going to make my match if I don't get there.'"
She asked hotel staff for a golf cart, but they didn't have one, offering a motor bike instead.
"I'm like, 'I don't do motor bikes,'" Williams said.
She was slightly less reluctant to try the bicycle, which she said turned out to be fun.
"It was probably one of my best memories I think ever, riding a bike to a match. That's pretty cool," said Williams, who was pleased to be told that tennis great Martina Navratilova sometimes rode a bike to Wimbledon.
"Yeah?" Williams said. "Honestly, I hear a lot of players do that, but I never did that. So, check."
Maybe the unfamiliar exercise accounted for her slow start against Japan's Morita, who broke Williams in the second game en route to a 3-0 lead.
Williams was back on track soon enough, winning seven straight games to lock up the first set 6-3 and hold her serve in the opening game of the second.
She gained the only advantage she needed with a break for 4-2 in the second. Serving for the match at 5-3, she gave herself a match point with her seventh ace and polished it off with a service winner.
Despite how easily she turned the tables, Williams said she respected Morita's game.
"I get a good impression from her," Williams said. "I played her before. She's tough. She stays really focused and she stays really pumped up, which I think is a really good feature."
Williams who currently shares the record of five Miami titles with German great Steffi Graf, next faces 13th-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Romina Oprandi.
Results on Saturday from the fifth day of the $8.5m WTA and ATP Masters Miami hardcourt tournament (x denotes seeding):
Men
Second round
Richard Gasquet (FRA x8) bt Olivier Rochus (BEL) 7-5, 6-2
Sam Querrey (USA x17) bt Lukasz Kubot (POL) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
David Goffin (BEL) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER x15) 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-2
Andreas Seppi (ITA x16) bt Aljaz Bedene (SLO) 7-5, 5-7, 7-5
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x6) bt Viktor Troicki (SRB) 7-6 (8/6), 6-3
Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) bt Martin Klizan (SVK x27) 6-2, 6-2
Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) bt Jerzy Janowicz (POL x21) 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-3
Andy Murray (GBR x2) bt Bernard Tomic (AUS) 6-3, 6-1
Grigor Dimitrov (BUL x29) bt Simone Bolelli (ITA) 6-4, 1-1, retired
Nicolas Almagro (ESP x10) bt Guido Pella (ARG) 6-0, 6-3
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS x28) bt Lu Yen-Hsun (TPE) 6-3, 1-6, 6-0
John Isner (USA x20) bt Ivan Dodig (CRO) 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/5)
Marin Cilic (CRO x9) bt Santiago Giraldo (COL) 6-2, 7-6 (8/6)
Tomas Berdych (CZE x4) bt Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 5-7, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2
Milos Raonic (CAN x14) bt Guillaume Rufin (FRA) 6-2, 6-4
Alejandro Falla (COL) bt Fernando Verdasco (ESP x25) 6-3, 7-6 (8/6)
Women
Third round
Li Na (CHN x5) bt Varvara Lepchenko (USA x25) 6-2, 6-4
Ajla Tomljanovic (CRO) bt Andrea Petkovic (GER) 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/1)
Garbine Muguruza (ESP) bt Caroline Wozniacki (DEN x9) 6-2, 6-4
Agnieszka Radwanska (POL x4) bt Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-3
Sloane Stephens (USA x16) bt Venus Williams (USA x19), walkover
Kirsten Flipkens (BEL x30) bt Petra Kvitova (CZE x7) 6-0, 4-6, 6-1
Serena Williams (USA x1) bt Ayumi Morita (JPN) 6-3, 6-3
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x13) bt Romina Oprandi (SUI) 6-3, 6-4
