Considering Serena Williams didn’t play her true best in her first round match against Margarita Gasparyan, it was questionable whether she would find her feet so early at this Wimbledon tournament and play at her true level, or never really reach it as happened at Roland Garros. However, with help from her formidable serve, Williams managed to play superbly to seal a spot in the third round.

The first set was the more competitive of the two, with Timea Babos being broken in the first game but managing to hold her serve for the remainder of the set. Williams held for 2-0 with an ace down the tee. Babos held comfortably to 15 and seemed to find her rhythm more but could not impose herself on the Williams serve enough in the next game and the American held with relative ease for 3-1. Both women served well throughout their service games, but Williams was too strong when it really mattered – in the eighth game she hit three aces and an unreturnable second serve to hold for 5-3. The Hungarian held once more but Williams had little trouble serving at 5-4, holding to 30 with a strong serve that forced a netted return from Babos to seal the set. The statistics reinforced Williams’ dominance throughout the set, firing 14 winners and winning 78 percent of her second serve points.

From then on Babos stood no real chance of making an impact on the match; the history of the first set seemed to be repeating itself as Williams broke immediately to begin, and consolidated with her huge serve once again. Babos held her serve for what would be the last time in the match, and somewhat surprisingly found herself with two break back points to level the set. However, Williams rose to the first real challenge of her serve magnificently, saving both break points - one with a wild backhand from Babos and the other with an ace, eventually holding for 3-1. It was easy work for the American from then on, breaking Babos twice more to win the match with some stunning returns to force errors from the underdog in the final game. She wrapped the match up in just under an hour, 6-4, 6-1.

Up next for Williams is British number one Heather Watson, who has made her way into the third round by defeating 32nd-seeded Caroline Garcia and former world number five Daniela Hantuchova. Williams remarked after her win over Babos that she “hates playing Brits at home” and Watson will certainly have the crowd support behind her, but it’s difficult to see any outcome other than a straight sets win for the world number one.