300 and counting as Serena powers through
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LONDON (Reuters) – World No. 1 Serena Williams kept her Wimbledon title defense on track on Sunday, downing Germany’s Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0 with a crushing display of power and booming serves to chalk up her 300th career Grand Slam victory.
Williams looked in no mood to follow men’s top seed Novak Djokovic out of tournament after his shock defeat on Saturday and treated the middle Sunday party crowd to an imperious 51-minute performance.
Warning her last-16 opponent, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, that there is more to come, she said: “I thought it was good, I still want to get out to a little bit of a faster start, but I was really focused and calm today.”
Williams was broken by unseeded Beck in her second service game but then stepped it up and never looked back.
She thundered down the biggest women’s serve of the grasscourt major so far at 123 mph (198 kph), followed by an ace, to seal the first set against the 22-year-old.
The 34-year-old American, who said she had been helped by suffering a scare in round two against compatriot Christina McHale, romped through the second set in 20 minutes as Beck’s resistance crumbled. SERENA WILLIAMS hits a return to Annika Beck during their third-round encounter yesterday at Wimbledon, which the top-ranked Williams won decisively, 6-3, 6-0, to set up a duel with Svetlana Kuznetsonva in the next round at the All-England Club.
The match brought her 300th Grand Slam win – something that seemed to take her by surprise.
“No? Was it? Cool, oh nice. I had no idea, that’s awesome, right? I think that is a lot of matches,” she said as she came off court.
The statistic, just one of dizzying array for the six times Wimbledon champion, takes her past Chris Evert on 299 and leaves her behind Martina Navratilova on 306 after what, by Williams’s standards, has been a disappointing spell.
She lost the French Open final to Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, and was beaten in the Australian final by Angelique Kerber.
She also lost in the US Open semifinals last year, robbing her of the chance to hold all four major titles in the same season after netting four in a row with last year’s Wimbledon win.
With those losses, perhaps the most glittering number of them all still eludes her.
Williams is continuing her quest for at least one more slam to equal or better Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 major titles, although she believes she has already etched her name in the history books, alongside Djokovic.
“I think he and I have both made extreme history. He’s won four in a row. I won four in a row last year. I think that’s historic in itself,” she told reporters.
Her next opponent, old foe Kuznetsova, reached the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time in eight years with a 6-7(1), 6-2, 8-6 win over American Sloane Stephens.
“I’m looking forward to it. We both are ready for this match. You know, we’re both going to give it our heart, as we always do when we play each other,” Williams said.
“I know what it takes to win these tournaments. It’s just about now just doing it.”
Meanwhile, Australian Nick Kyrgios turned on the style to book a fourthround clash with favorite Andy Murray as he outplayed Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez.
The unpredictable 15th seed wowed a packed Court One crowd with a dazzling exhibition of his mercurial skills, knocking off two sets in quick time for a 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4 after the match had been stopped by bad light the previous evening.
Also, a Frenchman being involved in a long – or rather very, very long – fifth set epic against John Isner at Wimbledon had a feeling of déjà vu about it.
However, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made sure he did not end up on the losing side as his compatriot Nicolas Mahut did six years ago after he saved a match point to beat the American marathon man 6-7(3), 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 19-17.
A backhand volley finally carried Tsonga into the fourth round after four hours and 24 minutes of nerve-jangling drama, with the fifth set alone lasting two hours and eight minutes.
Isner had a match point on Tsonga’s serve while leading 16-15, but the Frenchman blasted a forehand winner to stay alive and 16 minutes later he was the one leaping into the air in celebration.
“It’s good to be alive,” said a grinning Tsonga after he booked a fourth-round showdown with childhood friend and compatriot Richard Gasquet, who moved stealthily into the last-16 for the seventh time in his career on Sunday, finishing off Spain’s Albert Ramos 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-3.