300 grand slam wins up for Serena

World number one downs Beck to progress to Wimbledon fourth round

LONDON: Serena Williams clinched her 300th Grand Slam victory as the defending champion raced into the Wimbledon fourth round with a 6-3, 6-0 demolition of Germany’s Annika Beck yesterday.

Williams’s triple century moved the world number one above Chris Evert into sole ownership of second place in the all-time list, with only Martina Navratilova’s Open era record of 306 ahead of her.

The 34-year-old has now won 82 matches at Wimbledon as she remains on course to equal Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 Grand Slam titles with her seventh Wimbledon crown.

She was in peak form on Centre Court, hitting 25 winners and seven aces as she took just 51 minutes to set up a last 16 clash with Russian 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.



“Oh, was it? Cool. Oh, nice. I had no idea. That’s awesome, right? I think that’s a lot of matches. It’s a lot of wins,” said Williams when told of her landmark. “I thought it was good. I still want to get out to a little bit of a faster start but I was really focused and calm. Obviously I love having that Sunday off but I’m a little behind in my matches so I guess I had to play an extra day.”

For only the fourth time, Wimbledon had thrown open its gates on a middle Sunday and Serena’s longevity meant she was one of the few current players who had played on the last extra day 12 years ago, defeating Spain’s Magui Serna.



Kyrgios downs Lopez to book Murray clash

Nick Kyrgios booked a clash with Andy Murray for a place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals after downing Feliciano Lopez in the third round.

The Australian 15th seed won 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-4 on Court One in a match that was tied at one set all when bad light stopped play on Saturday.

Kyrgios will face second seed and 2013 champion Murray today.



Laver saddened by Djokovic exit

Tennis legend Rod Laver admitted he was saddened by Novak Djokovic’s failure to break his 47-year long Grand Slam record.

World number one Djokovic suffered a shock defeat to unheralded Sam Querrey of the United States in the Wimbledon third round on Saturday in what was his earliest exit at a major in seven years.

The loss also meant that Laver remains the last man to sweep the calendar Grand Slam in 1969.

“I’m still happy to have the title, but I don’t own it,” said Australian legend Laver. “I would have liked to have been at the US Open and be the first to shake Djokovic’s hand if he did it. Don Budge did that for me in 1962 at Forest Hills.”

Budge’s message to Laver was: “Welcome to an exclusive club.”

American player Budge won the first calendar Grand Slam in 1938 before Laver achieved the feat twice, in 1962 and 1969.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2016.

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