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Pasting Basting Serena loses just one game in rout of Dutch qualifier
Posted: Wednesday June 28, 2000 09:58 AM
LONDON (Reuters) -- U.S. Open champion Serena Williams takes longer to bead her hair than she does to crush opponents in the early rounds at Wimbledon. On Wednesday she took just 35 minutes to flick aside Wimbledon debutante Yvette Basting 6-1 6-0 and sail into the third round, thanks to a serve that was really "popping." A reporter asked if it would take longer to bead her hair. Amid laughter, she replied "Yes. It takes a little while especially now it [her hair] is much longer. To bead it now would take like, you know, two hours, two and a half hours. "In my first few matches I don't want to stay out there too long." In the first round she had allowed Asa Carlsson of Sweden just five games. Eighth seed Williams gave Basting a pasting. The dispirited Dutch qualifier managed to hold her serve just once, in the sixth game of the first set, and was never allowed to launch an effective challenge. The 18-year-old Williams, now fully recovered from a knee injury suffered in April, was in majestic form and her serve and two-handed backhand were particularly impressive. The American, whose prize money earnings have already topped $3 million, was thrilled about her serve. "I was popping it today. It was amazing. Sometimes I had to pinch myself. That's how it was going at the [U.S.] Open," the bubbly teenager told reporters after her one-sided victory. Williams, who like her older sister Venus picks Wimbledon as her number one career target, said: "I haven't even begun to reach my peak. I think there is so much room for improvement. "I like the grass. It suits my game. I have fast-paced game," she said. She does not appear keen to enter into a relationship while focusing so intently on her tennis -- but she quipped that everybody else seems to be romantically busy on the circuit. "I guess there is a lot of action going on around the tour. I've been away. I missed a little of the action. Every day I see things, my eyes light up, 'Whoa I didn't know'." However she did confess to just one terror at Wimbledon -- being driven around by her father and coach Richard whose driving prowess on Britain's left-hand drive roads does not match the sporting brilliance of his daughters.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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