Reporting from Wimbledon, England — Completing another sublime Wimbledon week in a life full of them, Venus Williams went storming into the fourth round today by marching through Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, a swift 20-year-old who beat Williams in their only prior encounter.
The 6-0, 6-4 win placed Williams into at least the fourth round for the 10th time in her 13 Wimbledon entries, and it set up a glamorous fourth-round match for Monday against Ana Ivanovic, the Serbian who won the French Open in 2008 but had her confidence ebb ever since.
"When you're winning at Wimbledon, there's not much better than that," Williams said to the BBC immediately after the match, having weathered a hot, sunny day.
"I'm a Florida girl," she said. "You don't even understand the heat in Florida. . . . Yeah, I needed a sweater."
Where Williams lost that 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 match in the second round in Melbourne, Australia, in January, this was decidedly not Melbourne early on. Where Williams felt she had not been the aggressor back then, she kept Suarez Navarro pinned well behind the baseline for significant portions of this match. Within 33 minutes, Williams had blown through the first set on a court that's almost a second home to her while opposing a player in only her second Wimbledon, if also a highly impressive Australian Open and French Open quarterfinalist already.
Williams served 65% and actually broke Suarez Navarro to start the second set, whereupon the Canary Islands native who lives in Barcelona began to find the varied game she presents from her 5-foot-4 frame. She challenged Williams, even breaking back and taking the lead at 2-1, but Williams' elan held sway, and she broke Suarez Navarro for 5-4 before holding serve and winning when her opponent's last forehand, attempted from deep in the corner behind the baseline, sailed wide.
Williams' sister Serena also reached the fourth round, on Friday, and the two cannot meet until the final. Serena will play her fourth round against Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, the No. 32-ranked player whom Serena defeated in the quarterfinals here in 2007.
chuck.culpepper@yahoo.com
