Serena’s getting meaner by the match

Serena Williams blasted out a warning to all Wimbledon wannabes with a demolition of German Julia Goerges.

Bidding to become the oldest singles winner here in the open era – she turns 38 in September – Williams sent down seven aces on her way to a 6-3 6-4 victory.

But it was the all-round sharpness of her game and her movement around the court that should serve a sobering warning to the rest of the field.

Williams is here to chase records. An eighth Championship would put her level with Margaret Court in the table of all-time Grand Slam women winners on 24. Remarkably, Williams – who claimed Olympic gold here in 2012 – has now won 104 of her 117 matches on grass.

Williams will now face Carla Suarez Navarro in the fourth round.

Top seed Ashleigh Barty is likely to provide the opposition in the quarter-finals but the American believes a player 22 years her junior could also contend for the title.

For large parts of her 106th match at Wimbledon, Williams looked fed up, as moody as the ominous clouds above.

But her mood brightened when asked about the player who has already taken this year’s tournament by storm. Like so many, Serena has been swept up by the Coco Gauff phenomenon.

She said: “I think she’s doing everything great. I’m a big fan actually.”

And when asked if Gauff could actually go all the way here, Williams said: “I think there are some 15-year-olds, like me, who wouldn’t know what to do at Wimbledon.

“Then you have a 15-year-old like Coco who knows exactly what to do.

“I think that she is definitely on a different level, so I think she’s totally capable and ready, to be honest.”