Serena yet to drop a set on the lawns of Wimbledon in 2018

LONDON: Seven-times champion Serena Williams prevailed in a Centre Court mothers’ meeting yesterday, roaring past Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina into the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

The 36-year-old American was untroubled in a 6-2 6-2 victory – her 90th singles match win at the All England Club.

Rodina, who like Williams combines a tennis career with motherhood, looked overawed at first as she went 3-0 down.

She steadied herself, though, and even had a break point when Williams served at 4-2, but her chances were few and far between as her opponent continued to charge through a draw blown wide open by an exodus of seeds.

Rodina left the court for a few minutes at the end of the first set but when she returned Williams continued her domination with an early break in the second.

With her easy power Williams looked serene as she cruised to victory to set up a clash with Italy’s unseeded Camila Giorgi who beat Ekaterina Makarova.

Williams, who missed last year’s Wimbledon because of pregnancy, has not lost here since 2014 and has now won 18 consecutive matches on the London lawns.

She is yet to drop a set this year.

Twelfth seed Jelena Ostapenko recovered from 5-2 down in the first set to reach the quarter-finals, channelling her anger from a disputed code violation to crush Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-6(4) 6-0.

The Latvian former French Open champion looked in trouble with her Belarusian opponent delivering a superb lob to take her to within a game of the opening set.

However, Ostapenko appeared to be stung into action by a code violation for coaching and reeled off four games to turn the tables.

“Actually, I didn’t even understand for what it was given because I didn’t really hear anybody saying anything. Probably somebody from the crowd said something,” said Ostapenko, at 21 the youngest player in the round of 16.

“Actually that code violation made me even more motivated and angry, so I just started to play better.”

Coaching teams are not allowed to talk to their players during matches at Grand Slam tournaments. Sasnovich, who upset eighth seed Petra Kvitova in the opening round, won one more game to send the set into a tiebreak which she lost 7-4 on a double fault.

“I think my game suits grass pretty well, Ostapenko said.

“I really enjoy time here, just looking forward to my next match.”

Ostapenko, who has yet to drop a set in the tournament, clinched the first set in 56 minutes then took half that time to win the second as Sasnovich’s game deserted her.

Sasnovich, 24, saved four break points in the fourth game of the second set, her last stand, but could not hold.

Ostapenko, who had won their two previous meetings, including the first round at Wimbledon last year, proved too strong in the end and will be favoured to beat Dominika Cibulkova in the next round.

Cibulkova ended Su-Wei Hsieh’s run after the Taiwanese had upset top seed Simona Halep of Romania.