By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, July 3, 2015
"I honestly didn't think I was going to win," said Serena Williams. "She did everything well and I just couldn't keep up."
Photo credit: CameraSport/Stephen White
Screams from the raucous crowd were ringing in her ears while the end of her Grand Slam streak was staring Serena Williams right in the eyes.
As Heather Watson served for the match at 5-4, Centre Court grew very crowded. Williams battled the feisty British No. 1, a frenzied pro-Watson crowd, and the burden of Grand Slam history that made her steps look labored and swings seem strained.
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All those elements very nearly conspired to halt her quest for the Serena Slam and calendar-year Grand Slam.
Williams was exasperated, but refused to be eliminated.
Rousing herself into yet another pulsating comeback, Williams quieted her spiking nerves and the screaming crowd, roaring back to win three straight games and gut out an grueling 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 Wimbledon third-round victory.
It was Williams' 24th consecutive Grand Slam triumph and her seventh three-set win in her last nine matches.
The woman who fought back from a set down four times to win the French Open last month, raised her three-set record to 13-0 this season. Survival skills helped the world No. 1 subdue an inspired opponent who defended with defiance throughout.
"She played unbelievable," Williams said of Watson. "She should have won the match at this point...I honestly didn't think I was going to win. She did everything well and I just couldn't keep up."
In the end, Williams stood up to all challengers, even the crowd.
A few overzealous fans wrongly yelled "out!" disrupting a couple of rallies when Watson served for the match. The intrusion prompted Williams to ask chair umpire Kader Nouni to remind the crowd not to call out while the ball was in play. When some jeered Williams' request, she admonished them with this "don't try me" gesture.
Surviving another major stress test, Serena advanced to a blockbuster fourth-round clash against older sister Venus Williams in a battle of five-time Wimbledon champions. The 16th-seeded Venus did not drop serve in a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Aleksandra Krunic.
The 35-year-old Venus has not surrendered a set and dropped serve just once in three tournament wins. Older sister won their last clash in the Montreal semifinals last summer; young sister holds a 14-11 edge in their head-to-head series and is expecting another spirited test from the rival who knows her best.
"She's in better form than I am so I think she has a little bit of advantage in that match," Serena told the BBC. "At least one of us will be in the quarterfinals."
For a while, it looked like Venus would be the only Williams in the round of 16.
Though the top seed more than doubled Watson's winner total (53 to 20) she tripled her quick-footed opponent's unforced error output (33 to 11), converted just seven of 20 break points, sometimes looked stuck to the lawn by tension that locked up her legs and repeatedly slapped returns into the net.
Still, she fought through it all and rallied from a double-break down in the decider.
It was a completely different story at the start.
An overwhelming Williams permitted just three points in her first four service games surging out to a 5-2 lead. Watson tried to maintain aggressive court positioning a couple feet behind the baseline, but the depth and pace of the top seed's drives pushed the Brit back at times and forced rushed replies on other occasions. A wild forehand miss gave Williams double set point. She broke again at 15 powering through the opener in 25 minutes.
Timing the ball better in the second set, Watson opened up a 0-03 lead on the five-time champion's serve in the fifth game. Williams slapped her first double fault of the match into the top of the tape, snapping her streak of 21 straight service holds and inciting a mass roar from faithful cheering Watson's 3-2 lead.
Keeping her drives low to force the bigger hitter into mistakes, Watson broke again for 5-4. When Williams put a routine backhand return into the middle of the net, many of the Centre Court fans, including Watson's mom, erupted as did hundreds more on Henman Hill with some waving the Union Jack in joy.
The 59th-ranked Watson, who fought off three match points toppling 32-seeded Caroline Garcia in the opening round, was level with the world No. 1 sending fans into a spontaneous rendition of the wave.
Watson rode the wave of support for a second straight break as Williams slapped two straight shots into the top of the tape staking the home hope to a 1-0 lead in the decider.
The pressures of an unerring opponent who made her work for everything she got troubled the top seed, who clanked successive double faults handing Watson a third straight break and 3-0 lead. Watson was a point from a 4-0 lead, but after a tense 10-and-a-half-minute game, Williams hit a flurry of forehands to finally break for 1-3. Her entire support box, including mother Oracene, who smiled through the tension in an effort to relax her daughter, stood and applauded trying to spark Serena.
The drama didn't subside.
Williams plastered a backhand smack on the sideline saving break point. Inhaling deep gulps of air as if trying to slow her heart rate, Williams won her fourth straight game when Watson's return flirted with the tape then fell back on her side.
Watson wasn't finished. She nudged a beautiful drop shot winner holding for 4-all then waved her arms summoning the crowd to make some noise. Watson broke at love and was two points from a monumental upset at 5-4, but could not close. Unable to handle the heat from her opponent's return Watson, who is winless in 10 matches vs. Top 5 foes, netted a backhand and Williams was back on serve.
The signature shot restored order. Unleashing an ace down the middle, a slice ace wide and a serve winner, Williams capped a commanding love hold for 6-5. On her third match point, Williams hammered a backhand inside the baseline to end a fierce struggle.
It wasn't easy, it wasn't always pretty and her nerves were jittery, but Serena worked through a tempestuous match and now has two days to rest and recover before reuniting with Venus in what could be another demanding—and noisy—battle.
"I expect more people to be rooting for Venus—I would be rooting for Venus," said the 20-time Grand Slam champion.