Before the Serena-Beck match on Centre Court, American 27th seed Coco Vandeweghe defeated veteran Italian sixth seed Roberta Vinci – who shocked Serena in the US Open semi-finals previous year – 6-3, 6-4. For the fourth time in history and the first time for over ten years, the play is taking place on the middle Sunday.
Advertisement
After falling an early break behind at 2-1, Williams won 11 of the last 12 games and 24 of the second set’s 28 points. I really had no idea about the number of wins in the Grand Slam. “I think that’s a lot of matches”. Williams improved to 300-42 at major tournaments and trails only Martina Navratilova, who went 306-49 in her career.
“Obviously I’m sure over time he’ll start to do better and understand better how to deal with all of the attention and the questions and stuff”, said the 2013 champion. Typically, the middle Sunday of the two-week tournament does not feature matches, a rest for the players and grass surfaces alike.
After losing a closely-fought first set, Serena let out her anger on the racquet, smashing it multiple times before flinging it backwards.
That’s still modest compared to Isner’s win over France’s Nicolas Mahut six years ago.
In the men’s draw, Juan Martin del Potro’s first Wimbledon campaign for three years ended as the Argentinian crumbled to a 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, 6-1 defeat by Frenchman Lucas Pouille.
Williams won the first three Grand Slams of 2015 but she has failed in her last three attempts to match Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 major titles.
“Andy Murray on Centre Court at Wimbledon: it can’t get much better than that”.
However, Williams said she did not view that as a burden she had to carry.
Kuznetsova was 5-3 down in the final set and had two furious finger-wagging rows with chair umpire Marijana Veljovic.
She is an unpredictable player, and especially so on the lawns of Wimbledon, where she has reached the quarterfinals three times but lost early several times, including in the first round a year ago.
If the opening two women’s matches on Centre Court gave them little opportunity to get overly involved, Williams’ fellow American Coco Vandeweghe having disposed of sixth seed Roberta Vinci with surprising ease, 6-3, 6-4, the last of the trio of matches they were served up was a treat as 2010 finalist Tomas Berdych took on German teenager Alexander Zverev.
Murray will play Nick Kyrgios, who defeated Feliciano Lopez in the third round. “As for facing Serena, it will be an honour to play her”.
It was a further boost for Murray, who had already benefitted from the early exit of fourth seed Stan Wawrinka, his scheduled semi-final opponent. You know, I’m looking forward to it.
Play was suspended because of darkness after three sets Saturday.
Murray has found it nearly impossible to get the better of Djokovic over the last three years and had lost the Australian and French Open finals to the world number one this year.
Advertisement
It was a vintage showing from the American, who needed just 51 minutes to set up a fourth-round tie against Svetlana Kuznetsova. The No. 13 seed is coming off a sensational comeback win over Sloane Stephens, roaring back after being down 5-2 in the final set for an 8-6 triumph.
