Serena Williams dodges a scare against Jie Zheng in the third round – Wimbledon Championships 2012
American powerhouse, Serena Williams, was on the verge of a cracking defeat in the third round battle at the Wimbledon Championships but the world number six sustained her clean sheet against Jie Zheng to dodge the upset on Saturday.
Serena recovered from being a set down in the contest to turn the tables on the world number 27 in three sets, 6-7(5), 6-2, 9-7, to reach the fourth round of the star-studded event in London, England.
Winner of five Wimbledon singles crowns, Serena came to London as one of the strongest contenders for the title. Everyone knows that the 30-year-old American veteran is not at her very best at the moment and is still recovering
from niggling injuries, yet her presence on the court is most feared by all opponents.
Zheng is having a sublime run of form this season and has already a WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) in her bag. She was cruising through the initial rounds of the tournament and took off really well against Serena on Saturday
afternoon but failed to sustain her momentum against the sixth seeded American in the later parts of the match. She was very close to register a huge upset in the extended third set of the match but was denied by the sheer brilliance and power of Serena, who
brought all her years’ experience into play and came out as the winner.
"I really wanted to win this match, because this was my third time against her at Wimbledon on Centre Court," Zheng said after the match. "It was a long, tough match. She has a big serve - it's difficult to play against her on
a grass court. But I played well, and I had some chances in the final set. At 7-all I didn't have such a good service game. But it was still a great match for me. After we finished the match, she just told me, 'You are crazy. You are crazy. This was an unbelievable
match.' I really hope she can win this year."
As she is well known to possess one of the best serves in the game, Serena bombarded 23 aces on her opponent’s court and won 53 out of 66 first serve points en route to victory. The 30-year-old broke Zheng three out of five times,
whilst the Chinese rival utterly failed to register a single breakpoint in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
Serena will face the Kazakh wildcard entrant, Yaroslava Shvedova, in the fourth round.
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