By Howard Fendrich / The Associated Press
LONDON—Twice, Serena Williams stood merely two points from a loss at Wimbledon against a British opponent buoyed by a roaring, flag-waving Centre Court crowd.
Twice, Williams was oh-so-close to the end of her bid for a fourth consecutive major title—and for the third leg of a calendar-year Grand Slam.
And twice, pushed to the precipice, Williams regrouped, resisted and wound up winning, as she so often does.
Stomping her foot after misses, alternately screaming in delight or despair, even wagging her finger at fans who booed her, the No. 1-seeded Williams overcame a surprisingly staunch challenge from 59th-ranked Heather Watson and emerged with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory in the third round on Friday.
“I honestly didn’t think I was going to win,” said Williams, who trailed 3-0 and 5-4 in the final set. “How I pulled through, I really don’t know.”
Her 24th victory in a row at Grand Slam tournaments sets up a showdown on Monday against another five-time Wimbledon champion, her older sister Venus.
“We’ve been facing each other a long time,” said the 16th-seeded Venus, who eliminated 82nd-ranked Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia, 6-3, 6-2.
This will be the 26th all-Williams matchup, and first at a major since Serena beat Venus in the 2009 Wimbledon final.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s so soon,” Serena said.
Other women’s fourth-rounders on Monday: 2004 champion Maria Sharapova versus Zarina Diyas; Victoria Azarenka versus Belinda Bencic; and French Open runner-up Lucie Safarova versus CoCo Vandeweghe of the US, who had never been this far at a major.
Men’s matchups: defending champion Novak Djokovic versus Kevin Anderson; French Open champion Stan Wawrinka versus David Goffin; Richard Gasquet versus Nick Kyrgios.
Denis Kudla, an American wild-card entry, reached the second week at a major for the first time and awaits the winner of US Open champion Marin Cilic against American John Isner, whose match was suspended because of darkness at 10-all in the fifth set. It harkened back to Isner’s record 70-68 fifth-set victory spread over three days in 2010, but he and Cilic have a long way to go to equal that marathon.
Nothing in that match, or any other on Friday, offered up the tension and drama provided by Williams versus Watson. Especially once Watson—playing steadily, if unspectacularly—appeared on the verge of a significant upset.
“She just did everything so well. I wasn’t able to keep up. You know, sometimes you just don’t have your day,” said Williams, who lost in the third round atWimbledon last year. “I thought maybe today just wasn’t my day.”
Sure looked that way when Watson took six straight games to go up two breaks in the third set. Then came an epic, 18-point game that began Williams’s comeback. Watson twice was a point from leading 4-0, but she looked a bit tight, shanking a forehand about 5 feet long, then pushing a forehand wide to get broken.
Still, she broke Williams at love for a 5-4 edge, moving within a game of by far the biggest victory of her career.
At the ensuing changeover, Union Jacks of various sizes flapped in the swirling wind while chants of “Heather!” reverberated through the nearly century-old arena. When play resumed, yells came during points, and Williams complained to the chair umpire, drawing jeers.
“It was really intense today,” Williams said. “I’ve never heard boos here.”
At deuce, potentially two points from the end, Williams produced a forehand winner. Moments later, again at deuce, again two points from defeat, Williams conjured up another big forehand.
“When she needs to hit the line or needs to hit a winner, she’ll just do it,” Watson said, “and that’s what she did.”
That began a match-closing run of three consecutive games for Williams, who held at love for a 6-5 lead with four unreturned serves.
“I don’t know where she found this strength today to win it,” said Williams’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, “because she was so far mentally at a certain point.”
Williams broke Watson to finish things, yet even that didn’t come easily. Williams needed three match points, cashing in the last with a backhand return that forced a miss by Watson.
There weren’t all that many unforced errors from Watson: She totaled 11; Williams 33.
“She couldn’t play better,” Mouratoglou said about Watson. “She played the perfect match.”
At the moment, even that is apparently not enough to beat Williams.
Now her older sister will give it a try.
BROWN GOES FOR ENCORE
AFTER his stunning win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, Dustin Brown said it was easy to play well when expectations were so low.
The 102nd-ranked German won’t have that luxury on Saturday against Viktor Troicki. Everyone wants to see what Wimbledon’s latest sensation can do for an encore.
“Dustin was very entertaining yesterday,” said Nick Kyrgios, the Australian who beat Nadal in the fourth round here last year. “I thought he played some really courageous tennis, as well. The crowd loved it. He’s very unorthodox what he does out there and I thought it was pretty cool.”
It wasn’t so much the result that had people buzzing—it was the fourth year in a row that Nadal lost to an opponent ranked 100th or lower at Wimbledon—but the manner in which Brown dismantled the two-time champion. His aggressive serve-and-volley style is almost as unusual in tennis these days as Brown’s long dreadlocks.
But it’s especially well-suited to grass, and expectations ahead of his third-round match are now soaring.
“On this surface, when I go out there, obviously I’m confident that I can play my game,” Brown said. “Obviously I am not unbeatable on this surface, but it comes more natural playing on this, especially with my type of game.”
If recent history is any guide, though, following up a win over Nadal at Wimbledon can be quite difficult for lower-ranked players.
Lukas Rosol beat the Spaniard in the second round in 2012, only to lose his next match. Steve Darcis had to withdraw injured after stunning Nadal in the first round in 2013. Last year Kyrgios lost to Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals.
Image credits: AP