Seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams moved into the fourth round with a strong 7-5, 7-6 victory over Kristina Mladenovic on Friday, extending her SW19 winning streak to 17 matches and further cementing herself as the odds-on favorite to win her 24th grand slam title.
Williams did not dominate throughout, coming from behind when Mladenovic served for the first set and losing a lead early in the second set, but outplayed the Frenchwoman in the pivotal moments. She won the last four games of the first set, then capitalized on weak serving in the tiebreak to jump out to a 4-0 lead.
After a poor service point gave back one mini-break, Williams attacked the net and fired a short forehand cross-court just inside the line, then closed out the match in style with consecutive aces on her serve.
Early in the set, it appeared the No. 25 seed would need no tiebreak. She snatched Mladenovic’s first service game, returning a pair of body serves deep into the court at 30-30. She struck the first for a winner, then put the second right at Mladenovic’s feet to go up 2-0. But she lost her serve at love immediately thereafter, punctuated by a demoralizing double fault, eventually leading to the deciding tiebreak.
The closing aces were among 12 she fired to three double faults, though she put just 65 percent of first serves in play. Mladenovic hit 13 winners to only 10 for the powerful American, but she secured barely a third of return points.
“I’m really happy,” Williams told the BBC. “I had a early break in the second, so I’m going to go back and see what went wrong there. This is my serious second tournament back, so it’s going pretty well.”
At 5-4 in the first set, Williams pushed Mladenovic to 30-30, deposited one groundstroke on the line and handcuffed the world No. 62 with another to level the match. She jumped ahead 0-40 two games later, bent another forehand into the corner for a fourth set point and secured the edge when Mladenovic double faulted.
The first break reversed a spectacular 2-2 game from the top doubles player, who compiled three excellent points to build a 0-40 lead and hit a crisp passing shot beyond an in-between Williams for the early edge. She could not, however, take advantage of a small 15-30 opening in the American’s next service game.
Just more than an hour later, Williams had confirmed her spot on Manic Monday in the fourth round, where her draw appears to ease: She gets Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina, who stunned No. 10 seed Madison Keys despite apparent injury woes in the third set.
