Serena rolls into quarterfinals
LONDON — Serena Williams figures this statistic needs an asterisk: For the first time since Wimbledon started seeding players in the 1920s, none of the top 10 women reached the quarterfinals of the tournament.
It’s also the only Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era ( since 1968) with zero top- 10 seeds in the women’s final eight.
‘‘ I don’t think this has happened to this extreme,’’ Williams said after her 6- 2, 6- 2 rout Monday of Evgeniya Rodina in the fourth round. ‘‘ But I’ve never been ranked where I am. Usually, I’m one of those few seeds left that’s still fighting and still in the tournament. Now that I’m not [ seeded among the top 10], it kind of happened.’’
Bidding for her eighth championship at the All England Club, Williams will be back on court Tuesday against Camila Giorgi. She is seeded 25th, and that actually represents a big bump up from her ranking of No. 181. As she keeps reminding people, this is only her fourth tournament since missing more than a year after becoming pregnant and giving birth to a daughter, Olympia, in September.
‘‘ I feel like I’m getting to where I want to be,’’ said Williams, a 23- time major champion. ‘‘ For me, there’s somuch farther Iwant to go to get back where I was.’’
Williams hit serves as fast as 118 mph against Rodina. She had 10 aces, including four in one game, and had 30 winners to Rodina’s five.
‘‘ It’s speed and placement,’’ Rodina said about what makes Williams’ serve so effective. ‘‘ It’s 115, and she puts the ball close to the line.’’
Among other winners were 11th- seeded Angelique Kerber, 12th- seeded Jelena Ostapenko, 13th- seeded Julia Goerges and 14th- seeded Daria Kasatkina on the women’s side and top- seeded Roger Federer, second- seeded Rafael Nadal, eighth- seeded Kevin Anderson, ninth- seeded John Isner and 12th- seeded Novak Djokovic on the men’s side.