Serena Beats Venus At Wimbledon
Published on July 7 2015 6:26 am
Last Updated on July 8 2015 6:27 am
Serena Williams extended her mastery over big sister Venus, and kept alive her bid for Grand Slam history.
In the 26th career meeting between the siblings, Serena dominated with her steady serve and big hitting from the back of the court to win 6-4, 6-3 on Centre Court in 1 hour, 8 minutes, extending her Grand Slam winning streak to 25 matches.
The win sent the top-ranked Serena into the Wimbledon quarterfinals as she bids for a fourth straight Grand Slam title, a feat last accomplished by the younger Williams in 2003.
With Madison Keys and Coco Vandeweghe also winning Monday, it's the first time that three American women have reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals since Serena, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati did it in 2004.
If Serena can triumph again, only the U.S. Open would stand in her way of becoming the first player to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam -- a sweep of all four majors in the same season -- since Steffi Graf did it in 1988.
For two sets in Wimbledon's fourth round Monday, defending champion Novak Djokovic was in serious trouble, unable to solve 6-foot-8 Kevin Anderson's big serve.
Djokovic dropped both of those sets 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), then began working his way back into the match. He took the next two sets 6-1, 6-4 to force a fifth set before play was suspended a little after 9 p.m. because of darkness.
The two men will return to Court 1 at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday and play one set that will determine whether the No. 1-seeded Djokovic of Serbia reaches his 25th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal or the 14th-seeded Anderson, of South Africa, wins a fourth-round match at a major for the first time in seven tries during his career.
