Not so serene for Williams

Serena Williams was today forced to huff and puff as hard as the wind whipping around Court 2 before securing her place in the Wimbledon women’s singles quarter-finals at the expense of battling Yaroslava Shvedova.

Watched by sister Venus who made a swift first round exit to Elena Vesnina, sixth seed Serena was taken to a 12th game in the deciding set before scraping through 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 in an enthralling match lasting 1hr 54mins.

It had all seemed so different at the start of the first set which Serena won in just 26 minutes with a display of phenomenal serving and forceful hitting. It was almost as though Serena was angry at having to play away from the two main show courts and wanted to make her stay on two as short as possible.

But back came Shvedova in the second set. Serena appeared bewildered as to how to answer her rivals athleticism around the court but finally dug deep to make the decisive break in the 11th game of the decider.

Afterwards, the only American left in the women’s singles said: “The bottom line is I can play so much better than I have been.”