Abuja – Six-time champion Serena Williams overcame a first-set blip to reach Wimbledon’s last eight on Monday, with a straight-sets win over Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The 34-year-old Williams defeated the Russian 7-5, 6-0 to set up a quarter-final with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The Nigerian Observer reports that Kuznetsova failed to serve out the first set and before rain halted play the top seed was far from her best.
But under the Centre Court roof, Williams was supreme, winning eight games on the trot to secure victory.
From trailing 3-1, two-time Grand Slam champion Kuznetsova twice broke Williams’ serve for a chance to serve for the set.
But the defending champion immediately broke back to level at 5-5 before play was suspended because of light rain.
When the players returned to the court, the roof had been closed and the indoor conditions favoured Williams’ big serve.
Kuznetsova then failed to win a game as the world number one confidently secured the first set and, without further loss of a game, the match.
“She has played really well against me in the past and beat me earlier this year. So, I knew I had to play well to win,” Williams said after the match.
“It was really tricky out there. It wasn’t raining hard but was dewy and on the grass you can fall easily — then you think `should I run or not’ and it became more difficult because of that.’’
Having played on middle Sunday, Williams will now play on three successive days at SW19.
“In order to win a tournament you usually have to play quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals back-to-back,” said Williams.
“So I thought `Serena, you have done this over 70, 80 times’, so for me it is an easy transition.’’
Joining the defending champion in the last eight is her sister Venus, the five-time champion.
She beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 on Court One to progress to the last eight at Wimbledon for the first time since 2010.
The 36-year-old, who last won the title at SW19 in 2008, lost her opening two service games to trail 3-0.
But she fought back to take the first set to a tie-break, which she led 4-2 before rain stopped play.
When the match resumed, the American confidently wrapped up the tie-break and then broke her opponent’s serve in the third game of the second set.
Although Navarro levelled at 3-3, Williams immediately broke again in the next game and served out to take the second set and the match after an hour and 35 minutes.
She will next play Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.
In one of the matches of the tournament, Dominika Cibulkova beat Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 5-7, 9-7 in a thrilling duel which lasted nearly three hours.
Cibulkova will play Russia’s Elena Vesnina in the next round.
Fifth seed Simona Halep will come up against fourth seed Angelique Kerber of Germany in the quarter-finals after seeing off Madison Keys 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3.(NAN)
