Venus Williams put in a perfect display of grass court tennis when she defeated youngster Ana Konjuh in the fourth round of the Wimbledon Championships, progressing to the quarterfinals for the 13th time in her career.
Williams takes the first set 6-3
Williams came into the match firing on all cylinders as she played some of her best tennis in the opening game alone, hitting three straight powerful winners to get the love service hold in the first game. Coming from 0-30 down, Konjuh overcame some early jitters and fended off the tough challenge of Williams to narrowly hold serve in her first service game, leveling the scores early in the match. The American looked solid early on, serving two aces in the third game and remained untouchable on serve.
Konjuh then saved a break point before barely holding serve, with Williams looking too good for the youngster. After an exchange of service holds, the first breakthrough of the match finally arrived upon us as some powerful winners from Williams got her the first break of serve in the set, earning the golden opportunity to serve out the set along the way. Hitting two aces in the process, Williams successfully served out the first set to love and closed out the set 6-3 after just 28 minutes of play.
Williams strolls to take the win in straight sets
Coming back from 15-30 down, Konjuh had an encouraging start to the second set as she put in some strong serves to clinch the opening service hold in the first game. Without conceding a point, Williams was invincible on her serve and easily secured the hold of service to level the scores. The five-time Wimbledon champion then prevailed in a lengthy game which had multiple deuces, with Konjuh unable to handle the powerful returns of Williams. The American had to work hard in the next game as she was forced to fend off a couple of break points to consolidate the break, looking poised to claim the victory.
Konjuh’s woes continued as she was unable to come up with any good serves, allowing Williams to break serve to love and earn a double break lead. The veteran then easily consolidated the break and placed herself just one game away from winning the match, opening up a huge 5-1 lead. Coming from 0-40 down and saving three match points, Konjuh put in an encouraging performance and looked to mount an improbable comeback as she held her serve to stay in the match. However, it only proved to be a consolation game as the American closed out the win after just a mere 65 minutes of play, successfully serving out the match to 15.
Stats Corner: Venus Williams absolutely dominant
Williams managed to hit an impressive 24 winners throughout the match, and she barely had any slip-ups as she just conceded 13 unforced errors. Konjuh had a disappointing match as she hit just a mere 12 winners which came along with a heavy price of 17 unforced errors. Williams was merciless on her first serve points after winning an incredible 86 percent of them, compared to just 54 percent for the youngster. Williams’ dominance on her serve was further shown when she just lost 11 points on her serve throughout the encounter.
