WIMBLEDON, England — Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens continued their fine form at majors on Saturday, booking spots in the fourth round at Wimbledon.
Williams, 31, and Stephens, 20, represent opposite ends of the current generation of American women — and so far in 2013, they have been its most consistent players.
They are the only Yanks to reach the second week in all three Grand Slam events — and now have chances to go further when play resumes Monday.
"Both generations getting it done, and both generations are getting better," Patrick McEnroe, general manager of USTA player development, wrote in an email.
Stephens, who upset Williams to reach the Australian Open semifinals and is seeded 17th, shook off a sluggish start in a match delayed by darkness Friday to beat 196th-ranked qualifier Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-3), 0-6, 6-4.
"It was definitely tough," said Stephens, who blamed the waning light for her mid-match slump. "Lost focus there. But, I mean, it's a Grand Slam, so you just have to play hard, just keep going, know battling will go a long ways."
Top-seeded Williams showed no respect to her elders and dispatched 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan 6-2, 6-0 in 61 minutes.
The pair started play past 8 p.m. under a the closed roof on Centre Court when previous matches on their originally scheduled Court 1 ran long.
"I don't think it gets better for me than a closed roof on grass," said Williams, who improved her career-best winning streak to 34-0 and notched her 600th WTA victory.
Williams was generally happy with the match ... that doesn't mean, however, she didn't find things she wants to do better.
"I feel like I'm moving well," she said "I feel like I'm covering the court OK. You know, I'm pretty much insatiable. There's always room that I look to improve. I would love to improve my serve, I would love to improve my return. I think my return was better today than it was in my last match."
The other two Americans on the court Saturday, Madison Keys and Alison Riske, could not join Williams and Stephens.
Keys whacked 15 aces and pushed 2012 Wimbledon runner-up Agniezska Radwanska, but the cool, crafty Pole was too consistent near the end and advanced 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
Riske, a wild card making her Grand Slam debut whose best results have come on grass, lost to No. 46 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-2, 6-3.
Keys, 18, does not yet have the long-rally reliability or all-court movement on grass to fend off a defensive whiz like Radwanska.
But the young player with developing weapons is coming fast.
She played No. 4 Radwanska much closer than she did in March when she managed just two games on hardcourts in Miami.
"She was really playing great tennis," Radwanska said. "Especially she was serving unbelievable."
After ending last year at No. 149, Keys is projected to climbed into the mid-40s when Wimbledon concludes, making her one of six Americans in the top 50, the most since November of 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment