Serena Williams defeats Dominika Cibulkova at Wimbledon
Serena Williams is through to the fourth round at Wimbledon after defeating Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 7-5 on centre court on day six.
For the first set defending champion delivered an imperious display of serving, power, timing and just for some variety, touch, as she sent another strong message to all challengers that she’s got her sights set on hoisting the Venus Rosewater Dish again this year.
To Cibulkova’s credit, however, she refused to be steamrolled into submission in the second set, as her serve remained unbroken until the 12th game of the set.
Williams broke raced to the first set in just 18 minutes, and such was her dominance that she didn’t lose a point on serve until she netted a backhand on the opening point of her third service game, which the top seed won without the loss of another.
The statistics make frightening reading: in the first set Serena won 25 points to her opponent’s six, smacking six aces and as many winners at Cibulkova, who was rendered helpless against the power and precision of the world No. 1.
The second set began with another love service game to Serena, who was finding the corners of the service box with alarming regularity and leaving her 5ft 3in opponent unable to make any impression against her serve.
The Slovakian finally held serve for the first time in the match in its eighth game, then for the first time all match took Serena to deuce on her serve, along the way winning what may well have been the point of the match with perfectly crafted backhand slice hit from the edge of the tramlines. Two points later, however, Serena had snuffed out that particular challenge with her eighth ace of the match.
The world No. 46, however, continued to mount some resistance, holding serve on four more occasions as she, at least on her own serve, began to work herself into the rallies, and control them, from the baseline.
However with Serena serving with pinpoint accuracy, and the diminutive Cibulkova without the reach to even get her racquet on the best of them, breaking serve was always going to be a virtual impossibility for the 21-year-old.
In contrast, it was perhaps just a matter of time before Serena generated another chance to do so. That she did with Cibulkova serving to stay in the match at 5-4, but her unseeded opponent saved the match point and held serve as the match tipped over the hour mark.
It only took one more match point, however, for Serena to seal a victory that ended up being a tougher challenge than it initially looked as though it would be.
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