Venus sees off qualifier

Last updated: 29th June 2008  

Venus sees off qualifier

Williams: Straight-sets winner

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Defending champion Venus Williams survived a second-set blip to beat Maria Jose Sanchez Martinez and reach the last 16 of this year's Wimbledon.

Having struggled at times against British opponents Naomi Cavaday and Anne Keothavong in the previous rounds, Williams looked set for a more comfortable victory when she led by a set and 4-2.

However, the Spanish qualifier reeled off three games in a row to surprise the seventh seed before finally going down 6-1 7-5.

The first set was sealed in just 25 minutes, with the four-time winner getting her fearsome serve into good working order and banging down aces at 116, 119 and 120mph.

With her weaker shots, the world number 101 relied on too many drop shots against one of the fastest players on tour, and paid the price as she was broken to love in the third game of the second set.

To the 25-year-old's credit, she broke back in the eighth game and then moved into a 5-4 lead as she changed her tactics and charged to the net.

However, it was merely delaying the inevitable.

Williams broke again in game 11 and served out in style, clinching victory with a 127mph ace, her 11th of the match.

Williams will now meet Russia's Alisa Kleybanova on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals.

Happy

The world number 42, playing at Wimbledon for the first time, was a 6-4 6-4 winner over Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama.

"I was very happy with my performance," said Williams.

"Things got close in the second set, she was playing well and I needed to come up with something a little more and I was really happy to come up with that.

"If I don't have the power that I have then I get a lot closer to average. I think the power with my movement, and obviously with my strokes, adds a ton to my game. It's a real blessing and 127mph is a good way to end it.

"I'm actually never really trying to serve that hard, if that makes any sense. It just comes big. It's just how I serve."

She added: "In the first set, it was not working for her from the back of the court so it was really impressive how she changed strategy in the second set and made it very competitive."

Williams hit the fastest recorded serve in a women's tour main-draw match, reaching 129mph at the French Open last year.

However, Brenda Schultz-McCarthy hit a serve at 130mph during qualifying for an event in Cincinnati in 2006, and the WTA regard that to be the fastest serve in women's tennis history.

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