Saturday, July 02, 2016

2016 Williams Watch- Still Playing At Wimbledon

We've reached the first weekend of The Championships, AKA 'Williams'-don as I love to call the third Grand Slam of the tennis season because of my fave tennis playing siblings utter domination of it,

While it has been a little bumpy at times for both number one seed Serena and number 8 seeded Venus, they are still around and still playing at the All England lawn Tennis and Croquet Club as the ladies tournament seeds keep falling.

Number 2 seeded Garbine Muguruza?  Gone in the second round along with No. 7 Belinda Bencic (retired due to injury), No. 14 Samantha Stosur, No 15 Karolina Pliskova, No. 16 Johanna Konta, No 17 Elina Svitolina  No. 20 Sara Errani, No. 22 Jelena Jankovic, No. 30 Caroline Garcia and No 32 Andrea Petkovic.  They join  No. 23 Ana Ivanovic and No. 31 Kristina Mladenovic who went out in the first round and third round casualty Daria Kasatkina

Serena started her quest for her 22nd Grand slam title by dispatching Swiss qualifier Amra Sadikovic in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 to move on to her second round match with fellow American Christina McHale.  

That match was tougher than she expected, because McHale not only took Little Sis to a first set tie breaker, but snatched the first set from her. Order was restored in the tennis world as as a pissed off Serena resumed her usual dominance and punched her ticket to the third round clash with Germany's Annika Beck with a 6-7 (9-7) 6-2, 6-4 win over the plucky McHale

On the other side of the ladies singles bracket, Venus was also dismissing her first round opponent Donna Vekic of Croatia in straight sets 7-6 (7-3) 6-4, but had to endure a first set tiebreaker to do so.

She then sent qualifier Maria Sakkari of Greece packing with a 7-5. 4-6, 6-3 three set win to send her to a third round clash with Russia's Daria Kasatkina.

That match featured a marathon third set, but she survived again 7-5,4-6, 10-8 to face No. 12 seed Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain in the fourth round.

As they did in the French Open, they are also playing doubles, and got thorough their opening round ladies doubles match with their 7-5, 6-3 straight set win over the Slovenian duo of Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik.   They face in the second round of the doubles tourney Belgian qualifiers Elise Mertens and An-Sophie Mestach

Will Serena keep rolling to another final and FINALLY get that 22nd Grand Slam title?  Will Big Sis continue surviving and advancing through the bottom half of the 'Williams'-don ladies singles bracket?

Stay tuned.

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