By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, July 5, 2017

An emotional Venus Williams broke down in tears following her first-round win.

Teetering in the second round today, Williams refused to back down.

Watch: Medvedev In Bizarre Coin-Throwing Incident

Staring down a one-set, 4-all deficit, Williams reeled off eight of the final nine games dispatching qualifier Qiang Wang, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, in advancing to the Wimbledon third round.

The match was a rematch of the Roland Garros first round, which Williams won 6-4, 7-6 (3).

“Paris was straight sets. Completely different surface,” Williams said. “I think she just toward the end of the first set started landing a lot of shots. I didn't do a ton wrong. She just had an opportunity to be more aggressive. I had to at that point focus on the next two sets.”

The five-time champion raised her Wimbledon record to 83-14, surpassing sister Serena for most main-draw matches at Wimbledon among active women. Reigning champion Serena, who is pregnant and expecting her first child, owns an 86-10 career Wimbledon record.

In Open Era history only Martina Navratilova (120-14) and Chrissie Evert (96-15) have played and won more matches than Venus at The Championships.

Of course, none of that mattered much to Wang, who rallied from 2-4 down streaking through four straight games to seize the opening set.

“There's challenges on the court, and she played a great match,” Williams said. “She didn't let go. When I had opportunities to break, she would play break points, serve well.

“So I have to give her a lot of credit for pushing the match to the limit. I was happy in the third to have, like, a couple breaks to have some room to close it out. So I think that helped. A lot of credit to her, and I hope of course it helps me in the Championships.”