Media playback is not supported on this device Wimbledon 2018: 'Superb hitting from Serena' through to fourth round - best shots
Wimbledon 2018 on the BBC Venue: All England Club, Wimbledon Dates: 2-15 July Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, Connected TVs and the BBC Sport website and app; Live Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra commentary; Text commentary online.
Serena Williams passed her first proper test with style by beating France's Kristina Mladenovic to reach the Wimbledon fourth round.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion, on a comeback after giving birth, went a break down against the former top-10 player but won 7-5 7-6 (7-2).
While the women's seeds have been tumbling early here, Williams has advanced without dropping a set.
She faces fellow mum and world number 120 Evgeniya Rodina of Russia next.
Stars aligning for Serena
With eight of the top 10 women's seeds now out, the road for former world number one Williams to win an eighth Wimbledon singles title is looking ever clearer.
Not that she sees it that way.
"I think a lot of the top players are losing, but they're losing to girls that are playing outstanding," she said. "I think, if anything, it shows me every moment that I can't underestimate any of these ladies. They are just going out there swinging and playing for broke."
But then so is Williams, who has showed gradual improvement over the three matches she has played here.
In her first-round victory over Arantxa Rus, the American was laboured at times in gusty conditions, while against Viktoriya Tomova she moved around the court much better and overpowered her with her winners and improved serving.
Against Mladenovic she showed she could dig herself out of difficulty if necessary - winning four games in a row when 5-3 down to take the first set.
She carried on where she left off in the second set to go an early break up before the world number 62 broke back. The Frenchwoman went on to save a match point to force a tie-break.
But Williams found a new gear in the tie-break and sealed her 17th Wimbledon win in a row with her 13th ace.
By reaching the fourth round, Williams has matched her showing at last month's French Open, which was her first Grand Slam tournament since having her daughter last September.
The 36-year-old could have gone further there but pulled out of her last-16 match with Maria Sharapova with an injury.
"Just getting to the round of 16 twice is not bad. Hopefully I can do a little bit better," she said.
"I don't have anything to lose. I have absolutely nothing to prove. Yeah, everything is a bonus. Every time I step out there, I know what I'm capable of. I know every Grand Slam, I've won them, I'm capable of just going out there and enjoying it."
As the oldest woman left in the draw, after her 38-year-old sister Venus was knocked out on Friday, Williams is still leaving the younger players like 25-year-old Mladenovic behind.
And despite her seeding of 25, and her world ranking of 181, she is looking every bit the player to beat.
If anyone doubted Serena Williams was worth consideration as a winner of this tournament for an eighth time – let alone the 25th seeding that has caused a minor stir in the locker room – she provided the most emphatic statement of intent with her third straight-sets win of the week to reach the fourth round on a wave of growing self-belief.
“It’s going pretty well,” she said courtside with staggering understatement after beating the accomplished French player Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 7-6 (2) in front of a Centre Court audience who had come to soak up the sun and the American’s glowing brilliance on Friday afternoon.
Venus Williams out of Wimbledon after defeat to Kiki Bertens Read more
“I worked really, really hard. It’s been a long, arduous road. But I always expect to do the best I can do. Every opponent is playing her A game, as we’ve seen in this tournament. So many top players have lost – and technically I’m not a top player.”
Williams is allowed to say that in mock self-deprecation. Others will see it as nonsense, whatever the seedings say. The draw has opened up like the Red Sea on her side and she next meets the 29-year-old Russian Evgeniya Rodina, who played way above her 120 world ranking when she joined the Wimbledon giant-killers by putting out the 10th seed and US Open runner‑up Madison Keys 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in two hours and 10 minutes on No 3 Court.
Keys was the seventh of the top 10 seeds to lose before the middle Sunday, followed by Venus Williams shortly afterwards, testimony to the strength of the women’s game or confirmation of Johanna Konta’s contention after her defeat against Dominika Cibulkova the previous evening that the seedings do not necessarily reflect the quality of the opponent?
Williams had to fight for her win, though. She began nervously, saving two break points, and cracked in the fifth game as Mladenovic powered through her serve for an early lead.
Struggling to stay in the set after half an hour, Williams found her huge serve just in time to hang on for 4-5. The pressure switched across the net as Mladenovic sought to seal the deal, but her first unforced error of the match, a dumped backhand as she twisted her right ankle, preceded her second, an overcooked forehand – and they were back on level terms. That turned ankle was also the turning point of the match. Williams held without fuss and, after holding three set points, then another after deuce, broke when Mladenovic strove for an ace down the middle and double-faulted.
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Four games into the second set, Mladenovic was hanging on desperately to her serve and Williams had the familiar air of queen of Wimbledon, where she has won seven singles titles, most recently two years ago before taking most of 2017 off for the arrival of her first child in September.
They traded breaks mid-set and Mladenovic did well to hold from 15-40 in the 10th game – just seven points from going out of the tournament. Williams struck her 10th and 11th aces to hold, and Mladenovic was under the cosh again. Two exquisite winners gave her hope of survival but two double faults betrayed her nerves. This would have been a wretched way to leave and she managed to force an error on the backhand from Williams to reach deuce.
A delightfully switched drop shot out of the reach of her opponent got her to within a point of safety, but her serving hand trembled again as Williams grabbed her first match point. Again, the French player survived and a solid serve down the middle forced the tie-break.
The shootout was made for Williams, the greatest server in the business. She raced to 4-0 before an errant forehand gave Mladenovic a sliver of encouragement, but there was nothing she could do about an explosive cross-court backhand on the run, and they crossed at 5-1 to Williams. Another ace, her 12th, gave her match point and a 13th the match.
Her reappearance here has invested the tournament with much of its old majesty. She is 36 and, against all odds, approaching the level that has brought her 23 grand slam titles, one short of the all-time record held by Margaret Court. Kim Clijsters took three tournaments to get back to winning a major after giving birth to her first child. Williams is moving and hitting as if she could do it at the first attempt. She truly is a wonder.
Wimbledon: Seventh seed Karolina Pliskova avoids crashing out, as Serena Williams keeps advancing
Updated
Karolina Pliskova's mother gets so jittery when her daughter is playing tennis that she never travels with her and also opts not to watch her matches on TV.
It's just as well Mrs Pliskova makes no exceptions to her blackout policy even during Wimbledon. Had she tuned in on Friday, her heart could have been doing flip flops for almost two hours as her cherished child underwent a serious test on Court One.
But in the end, Pliskova narrowly avoided joining the cull of Wimbledon seeds to reach the fourth round with a 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 win over Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu.
The Czech appeared to be in danger of becoming the ninth top-10 seed to fall before the last 16 when Buzarnescu bagged the first set and kept Pliskova guessing in the second as she stormed to a 4-1 lead.
But somehow, she managed to cling on and not join Caroline Wozniacki, Garbine Muguruza, Petra Kvitova and Venus Williams in the ever-growing check-out queue.
So how did she pull off the great escape?
"I don't know," she said matter-of-factly.
Pushed to elaborate, she added: "Obviously a set and a half, she was so much better than me. But I just tried to hold my serve and wait for some chance because I was returning her serve so badly even though it was not that fast.
"I couldn't get used to it. Finally when I got used to it, I got my chances. She started to miss little bit. Then obviously she was broken a little bit after the second set."
Once the seventh seed survived the second set tiebreak, she raced through the decider to make it through to the second week for the first time in seven attempts.
She will next take on Venus Williams' conqueror Kiki Bertens — who won 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 8-6 on number one court — for a place in the quarter-finals.
Pliskova and world number one Simona Halep are the only top-10 seeds still in the tournament. Since tennis turned professional in 1968, it is the worst showing at Wimbledon by the women's seeds.
With such an open draw and with no other top-10 seed left in her half of the draw, she must now be fancying her chances of making it through to her second Grand Slam final following her run to the 2016 US Open title match.
"I don't care in the draw if they are seeded or not," she said.
"Even though they are not seeded, all the players are pretty strong and playing very good tennis. They wouldn't be here without playing a good level.
"Even today I could have lost. For me it's important I'm still in the draw. I know the draw is open and there is a big chance for me.
"All that matters is I want to win my next round."
She will be back to do just that in front of another big audience — but one that will not include a certain Mrs Pliskova.
"She doesn't even see the score, nothing."
In other results, Germany's Julia Georges [13th seed] beat Barbora Strycova [23] 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 10-8 in a match that took four minutes shy of three hours.
American Madison Keys [10] joined the exodus, when she lost 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 to Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, Czech player Katerina Siniakova lost to Italy's Camilla Georgi 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 6-2 and Croatia's Donna Vekic beat Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer 7-6 (7-2), 6-1.
Draw opens up for Serena
With the draw opening up in front of her, seven-times champion Serena Williams moved ominously into the last 16 at Wimbledon when she recovered from a sluggish start to beat France's Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) on Friday.
She may be nearing 37 and ranked an almost laughable 181st in the world as she returns from maternity leave, but make no mistake, the American is back in the groove and has her eyes locked firmly on the title.
In her first Grand Slam back, after missing the previous four, she reached the last 16 at the French Open but pulled out with a pectoral injury before her match against Maria Sharapova.
A few weeks on and with her game beginning to click smoothly into place, sport's most decorated mum suddenly looks like the one to beat in a women's tournament full of upsets.
Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina is her next hurdle and with no seeds left in her quarter of the draw 25th-seed Williams appears to have an open door to the semi-finals.
"The draw has opened up even more than she could have imagined," former men's champion John McEnroe said on the BBC.
"This is where she feels most at home and it is the easiest place for her to step it up and intimidate."
At almost the same time Serena was finishing off Mladenovic on Centre Court, sister Venus was losing over on Court One, meaning only two of the top-10 seeds remain.
Williams was measured on her chances when speaking to reporters, even if secretly she must be licking her lips.
"I'm feeling pretty good. I haven't had any problems yet. I think a lot of the top players are losing, but they're losing to girls that are playing outstanding," she said.
"If anything, it shows me every moment that I can't underestimate any of these ladies. They are just going out there swinging and playing for broke."
Few players in the history of women's tennis have gone for broke quite like Williams.
Reuters
Topics: sport, tennis, england
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