Second seed Serena Williams powered into the fourth round at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Italy’s Roberta Vinci yesterday.
Williams, a two-time Wimbledon champion, gave a masterclass in baseline play to bury Vinci under a barrage of brutal ground-strokes and set up a last 16 match against Japan’s Ai Sugiyama or Daniela Hantuchova.
Serena has yet to drop a set at Wimbledon this year and never looked likely to lose that impressive record in her 200th Grand Slam match. It is six years since Serena last won Wimbledon and, with last year’s final defeat to her sister Venus in mind, the Australian Open champion has the look of a woman on a mission to regain her crown.
PHOTO: AP
Williams, who took just 58 minutes to dispose of Jarmila Groth in the second round, seemed determined to make short work of Vinci. She broke for an early 2-0 lead then, after dropping her own serve, extinguished the Italian’s hopes with another morale-crushing break.
Serena’s power hitting was too much for Vinci. With almost every ball racing back at Vinci, it was a surprise when Serena won a point with a more subtle touch.
When Vinci scampered to the net to retrieve a Williams drop-shot, she was left horribly exposed, but instead of blasting the ball at her opponent, Serena simply clipped a gentle winner down the line.
Andy Murray made light work of a tricky tea-time assignment at Wimbledon on Thursday, while Lleyton Hewitt, the man who has already lifted the trophy the Scot so cherishes, rolled back the years to cause a big upset.
Murray devoured Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 to clear another hurdle toward becoming Britain’s first men’s singles champion in 73 years.
Murray was joined in the third round by dogged Australian Hewitt, the 2002 champion, who produced a vintage display to dispatch fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets.
Women’s third seed Venus Williams powered past Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko to remain firmly on course for a hat-trick of singles titles. However, Venus was evasive about what was wrong with her knee, which was strapped above and below.
Argentina’s Del Potro, occupying the place in the draw vacated by injured champion Rafael Nadal, was given a lesson in grasscourt play by Hewitt, who posted a 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 victory.
Elena Baltacha’s 7-5, 6-1 defeat by Belgian Kirsten Flipkens left Murray as the sole British representative in the singles.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946