Serena Williams had a simple task in winning through to the last 16 this afternoon. The Australian Open champion, seeded seven here, barely needed to move above second gear in order to outplay Milagros Sequera of Venezuela. Williams won 6-1, 6-0 in a fleeting Centre Court appearance lasting barely three-quarters of an hour.
At age 26, this third round stage was the furthest “Millie” Sequera had ever progressed in 12 Slam appearances, and thus her current near-high ranking of 56 will improve after The Championships. But against Williams – especially on grass – it was difficult to know how this slight player could make any impression on her opponent.
The points were over too quickly for her to create any challenge, and she found herself at 0-4 before she could get a game on the scoreboard. The very next game after that she found herself at 0-30 on Serena’s serve, but she didn’t take advantage of 25-year-old Williams’ short second service. The first set sped by in 23 minutes. If that felt bad, worse was to come.
Sequera – coached by Patricio Apey, who also acts as agent to the British number one Andy Murray – has a game which features little pace but lovely touch. She has all the shots but no power, and thus needed to make Williams run around the court if she was going to make any headway. Williams has not looked at her absolute fittest this Wimbledon, and if that is indeed the case then this is a factor which should make her more vulnerable on grass than it did on the Australian cement earlier this year.
But only rarely did Sequera find a way to deploy these potential tactics. Williams was able to find outright winner after outright winner, in the manner you might expect of an eight-time Slam title victor and two-time Wimbledon champion. The second set was a nightmare for Sequera, as Williams turned up the power.
So now Serena is just one round away from the prospective quarter-final against Justine Henin which everyone has been looking forward to since the moment the draw was made. It promises to be the match of the tournament – but then again, it will have to go some to outshine Jelena Jankovic’s third round victory over Lucie Safarova. Besides, the Williams-Henin quarter-final one month ago at the French Open was widely anticipated as a match to relish, and in the event fell way short.
On the evidence of today’s encounter it was difficult to tell if Williams is in shape to match the fearsome form Henin has shown to date this Wimbledon. The American may well be glad of a competitive workout in the fourth round – so long as it is a successful one, of course – before she lines up for the match everyone wants to see.
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