{"id":131335,"date":"2015-07-04T06:26:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-04T06:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=131335"},"modified":"2015-07-04T06:26:02","modified_gmt":"2015-07-04T06:26:02","slug":"serena-williams-through-in-wimbledon-after-watson-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=131335","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams through in Wimbledon after Watson thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

British number one Heather Watson gave top seed Serena Williams a huge scare before losing a thrilling third-round match at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old battled back from a set down, winning six straight games from 3-3 in the second set.<\/p>\n

Watson served for the match at 5-4 in the decider but five-time Wimbledon champion Williams recovered to win 6-2 4-6 7-5 in two hours and 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

The 20-time Grand Slam champion will play her elder sister Venus next.<\/p>\n

\"Heather<\/p>\n

Watson led 3-0 with a double break in the final set<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“It was a tough, tough ask today. But I was super, super close. I think that’s what really hurts the most,” said Watson.<\/p>\n

“I honestly didn’t think I was going to win,” Williams said. “How I pulled through, I really don’t know.<\/p>\n

“I just was like, ‘listen, if I’m going to go lose, I’m going to lose trying to do the right things’.<\/p>\n

Watson, the world number 59, was the last surviving British woman in the main draw and was hoping to reach the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time.<\/p>\n

Few people gave Watson a chance against the world number one, who overpowered her to take a one-sided first set in just 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n
Watson fails to emulate Sue Barker<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
It is 36 years since a British woman last beat a world number one, when Sue Barker beat Chris Evert in Boston in 1979.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

It appeared that the tournament favourite would sweep to a swift victory, but Watson regrouped and began to mount a better defence of her serve.<\/p>\n

At the same time, errors began to litter Williams’ game and she became visibly frustrated by her frequent mistakes.<\/p>\n

That increased Watson’s belief and, as she improved, the crowd began to sense a comeback was possible.<\/p>\n

Playing inspired tennis, she levelled at one-set all and moved 3-0 up in the decider with a double break.<\/p>\n

By now, Centre Court was rocking but Watson could not maintain the momentum, losing a point that would have put her 4-0 up, and Williams fought back to lead 4-3.<\/p>\n

Watson was not done yet, however. Another break gave her the chance to serve for the match at 5-4, and when she got to deuce she was within two points of victory.<\/p>\n

Williams has not won 20 Grand Slams without being a fighter, though, and she dug deep once again to break back and go on to win.<\/p>\n

Her victory keeps alive her hope of winning all four majors in the same calendar year, while Watson was left with nothing to show for an incredible effort.<\/p>\n

The two Britons left in the men’s singles, Andy Murray and James Ward,are both in action on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"Serena<\/p>\n

Williams struggled to keep her emotions in check when the match appeared to be slipping away from her<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Heather<\/p>\n

Watson’s disappointment was clear as she left Centre Court<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC Sport<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British number one Heather Watson gave top seed Serena Williams a huge scare before losing a thrilling third-round match at Wimbledon. The 23-year-old battled back from a set down, winning six straight games from 3-3 in the second set. Watson served for the match at 5-4 in the decider but five-time Wimbledon champion Williams recovered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":131336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3,31],"class_list":["post-131335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ghana-news","tag-professor-adei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/131336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}