The No. 1-seeded Williams’ fine was from her second-round victory over Christina McHale at Centre Court on Friday.
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McHale took Serena to three sets in Miami, losing 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, and played her tough again in Rome, losing 7-6(7), 6-1.
The tournament is still reverberating from the stunning exit of Novak Djokovic, whose bid for a fifth consecutive major title and the third leg of a calendar-year Grand Slam was stopped by American Sam Querrey in the third round.
Venus Williams’ match on the No. 1 Court was delayed four times by rain, including once with Williams holding a match point at 7-6 in the third set. Persistent rain postponed the match until Saturday. But she’s also yielding valuable psychological turf in nearly every match with her body language and by communicating her frustrations so vividly.
Sixth-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada came back from a two-set deficit to win for the first time in his career, beating No. 11 David Goffin of Belgium 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in Wimbledon’s fourth round Monday. Budge won six successive titles between 1937 Wimbledon and the 1938 U.S. Championships.
Kerber, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, has only beaten Halep once in four meetings.
Because of all the wet weather this week, the All England Club said matches will be played on the middle Sunday for only the fourth time in Wimbledons 139-year history. While the rain has literally affected every other player’s schedule, Roger Federer has made his way to the round of 16 without any kind of delay or distraction.
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.
John and Judi Fielding, from Greenwich, were busy digging into their first Henman Hill breakfast as they waited for play to start – a huge tub of strawberries and croissants, with two bottles of Lanson Champagne safely stowed in a rucksack for later in the day. “I’ve gotten fined a number of times for cracking rackets”, Williams admitted after the game.
“I was just really, really, really angry”, Williams explained to the Guardian. For sure, I haven’t had an easy road, but a lot of people haven’t.
“He just said, “great job, keep going”. This year, the top seed of her quarter, Garbine Muguruza, has already been bounced out of the tournament and her path ahead is as good as she could have hoped for.
Williams hit 40 unforced errors over the course of three sets, with 54 winners and 14 aces.
On Saturday, she will take on Germany’s Annika Beck.
Venus Williams has been through most things in her long and illustrious career but she enjoyed two firsts on Friday as she scraped into the fourth round. When play resumed, Kasatkina saved the match point and held to 7-7.
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“It was good for me to get through that”, Williams said. She now ranks second in the Open era behind Martina Navratilova, who went 306-49. “It’s just that when she doesn’t reach out to that feeling or emotion, it’s something that is important for her”, Mouratoglou added. Both players argued with the umpire, demanding the Centre Court roof be closed as they feared slipping and getting injured. Probably not ideal. She handled it well. Andy Murray is a former champion of this event (2013) and now plays at Wimbledon with little to no pressure. I try to crack a certain amount a year.
