Serena Survives, Sharapova Loses at 2012 Wimbledon Championships
Four-time champion Serena Williams survived a grueling match from Yaroslava Shvedova to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 victory on Monday.
Serena looked set to cruise through as she took the first set in emphatic fashion. On the other hand, Kazakh wildcard Shvedova has been in superb form, winning all 24 points and lost none in a Golden set against Sara Errani in the first round. She hit back hard to force the American to a final set.
Williams, also taken to three sets by Zheng Jie in the previous round, showed why she is a 13-time Grand Slam champion as she finally defeated her opponent to set up a final eight clash. She will face either champion Petra Kvitova or former French Open winner Francesca Schiavone.
"I feel it’s going good. The bottom line is I can play so much better than I am. If I couldn’t do better that would be a problem. You know me, I’m never satisfied."
She clearly has the appetite for more success, even if she might need to up her game to pass the even sterner tests that lie ahead. Serena hasn’t won a Grand Slam since her fourth Wimbledon triumph in 2010 and her first round exit from the French Open against Virginie Razzano last month ranked as her worst ever result at a major.
Serena was scheduled to go out on court two, while several players who have won far less than her 13 Grand Slams enjoyed the more glamourous confines of Centre Court and Court One.
Williams has never hidden her unhappiness about her frequent trips to Wimbledon’s shadow lands. The sixth seed started as if determined to spend as little time as possible on the court.
Shvedova completed the first Golden Set in Grand Slam history on Saturday. Although, a repeat was never suppose to happen against Serena and the American. She quickly stamped her authority on the match in blustery conditions, taking the first game with two aces before immediately breaking Shvedova.
Shvedova, the Wimbledon doubles champion in 2010, hadn’t dropped a set en route to reaching the last 16 for the first time.
That run was over within 26 minutes as Serena kept up her shots from the baseline, breaking again for a 4-0 lead before serving out the set. Serena found it much harder to stay on top in a second set which saw a complete change of momentum as Shvedova unleashed some fiery groundstrokes of her own.
This seemed to unnerve Serena. She earned a code violation for racquet abuse after an accurate shot from the Kazakh put her under pressure again. Shvedova began to match Serena’s power and a pair of breaks leveled the match at one set all. But Serena showed her big-match experience to earn the break late in the final set.
Sharapova was trying to become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2002 to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.
The Russian completed a career Grand Slam by taking the trophy at Roland Garros last month. Top-seeded Maria Sharapova’s bid for a second consecutive Grand Slam title ended with a 6-4, 6-3 loss to No. 15 Sabine Lisicki in a windy, rainy fourth-round match at Wimbledon on Monday.
She won Wimbledon in 2004, and was the runner-up last year, when she beat Lisicki in the semifinals, part of a 3-0 head-to-head record against the German before Monday.
