By Erik Gudris | Friday, July 6, 2018
Serena Williams showed off impressive serving to place herself in the Wimbledon fourth round.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Serena Williams may technically not be a top player, at least according to the rankings. But her third round performance at Wimbledon certainly put the rest of the women’s field on notice that the seven-time champion is a serious contender despite having played only a handful of events this year.
“Technically I'm not a top player but I do have the wins of one,” Williams, currently ranked No. 181 in the world, said with a laugh after her straight sets win that put her into the fourth round.
The 25th seeded Williams had to rely on her serve to see her through a dangerous opponent in France’s Kristina Mladenovic. Their last meeting at the French Open was a close contest, and this was expected to be one too, even with Mladenovic’s recent dip in the rankings from having reached the top 10 in 2017.
Williams fought off two break points in her opening service game. But soon it was Mladenovic who enjoyed the first service break for 3-2. Williams then found herself playing catch up for most of the first set.
Mladenovic served for the set up 5-4, but it was then Williams’ who raised her intensity and level of play. Ripping several return winners, Williams broke back for 5-all.
Wiliams continued attacking Mladenovic’s serve two games later with the former No. 1 holding three set points. Mladenovic saved two, but then tossed in an ill-time double fault to hand the set to Williams 7-5.
Williams stayed in charge early in the second set by taking a 2-0 lead. Mladenovic responded with a break of her own as she stayed level with Williams throughout the set. With long baseline rallies few in the set, the contest soon found itself in a tiebreak.
Mladenovic had to keep her serving level high and hope that Williams’s own level might dip some. That didn’t happen though as Williams jumped out to an early 3-0 advantage thanks again to a big return winner.
It was then that Williams started serving with vintage form. Two back to back aces down the stretch allowed her to seal the 7-5, 7-6(2) victory to place her in the fourth round. Williams' fine serving day included 13 aces total.
Williams will next face Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina who upset No. 10 seed Madison Keys earlier.