Serena closes the roof for a win
LONDON — It was raining, ever so slightly, and her Wimbledon fourth-round match was slipping away, ever so slightly, when Serena Williams stumbled as she ran to the net, winding up seated on the slick Centre Court grass.
Her opponent, two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, sent a shot flying past Williams to go up a break at 5-4 in the opening set.
Williams was slow to get up. She wasn’t injured, but was worried she could be. Why, she demanded to know from chair umpire Marija Cicak, wasn’t the retractable roof shut? Eventually, after one more game and much discussion, action was delayed for nearly 30 minutes while the cover was closed.
Whether it was the transformation to an indoor court, the strategy session the break allowed her to have with coach Patrick Mouratoglou or, as Williams suggested, simply the chance to calm down, she completely dominated the rest of the way, taking the last nine games to beat the 13th-seeded Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-0 yesterday.
“I’m so intense on the court. I give 200 percent every time I’m out there. Every single point,” said Williams, who is seeking her seventh Wimbledon title and 22nd Grand Slam trophy overall. “Sometimes I just need to take a deep breath and relax. I just needed to do that. I can do that on the timeouts,
“That’s one thing the past four years I’ve been really doing a lot of, just really taking a deep breath, re-collecting myself. I had a little more time to do it this time.”
Williams wound up winning 24 of the match’s last 29 points, and her 14 aces helped produce a “Did I read that right?” edge of 43-8 in winners.
Kuznetsova said she knew closing the roof would help Williams, but agreed it was the right decision, given how wet the grass was.
“I was afraid,” she said. “I’m not ready to risk (an) injury.”
Williams moved into her 12th quarterfinal at the All England Club, and she’ll be joined by her older sister Venus at this stage of the tournament for the first time since 2010.
A year after that, Venus revealed she was diagnosed with an energy-sapping disease, and she hasn’t approached the level of play that carried her to seven major titles, five at Wimbledon. At 36 the oldest woman in the field, Williams eliminated 12th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (3), 6-4.
“It’s wonderful when everything is working, but that’s not a reality. I don’t focus so much on, ‘Oh, my gosh, everything feels good,’ or, ‘Oh, shoot, it feels bad,’ ” said Venus. “It’s about, ‘Can I make this play right now? If I don’t feel great, can I still make this play?’ That’s the mentality I go into my matches with.”
The oldest man left is Roger Federer, who turns 35 on Aug. 8, and he looked in fine form after two days of rest, easily dismissing unseeded American Steve Johnson 6-2, 6-3, 7-5. Federer equaled Jimmy Connors’ Open-era record by reaching his 14th Wimbledon quarterfinal and added to his own mark by making it at least that far at a major for the 48th time.
Federer now plays No. 9 Marin Cilic, who beat him en route to the 2014 U.S. Open championship.
Tomorrow’s other men’s quarterfinals: No. 2 Andy Murray against No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 6 Milos Raonic against No. 28 American Sam Querrey, and No. 32 Lucas Pouille against either No. 10 Tomas Berdych or Jiri Vesely.
Cilic (vs. No. 5 Kei Nishikori) and Tsonga (vs. No. 7 Richard Gasquet) advanced when opponents quit because of injury.
In the women’s quarterfinals, Venus will meet Yaroslava Shevodova, while Serena faces 21st-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Today’s other matchups: No. 4 Angelique Kerber vs. No. 5 Simona Halep, and No. 19 Dominika Cibulkova vs. Elena Vesnina.