 |
| |
|
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
|||
EVENTS
CENTERS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|
 |
Serena still on fire Williams dominates Gagliardi in third-round rout
Updated: Friday June 29, 2001 3:54 PM
LONDON (Reuters) -- Fifth seed Serena Williams used sheer power to blast her way past Switzerland's Emmanuelle Gagliardi 6-1, 6-2 and into the fourth round of Wimbledon on Friday. Williams, beaten by big sister Venus in the semifinals here last year, has lost just eight games in the first three rounds of this year's championships. The only game the 96th-ranked Gagliardi won in Friday's 20-minute first set was on a break in the third when Williams gave away every point with unforced errors. When she turned on the full force of her power, Williams was unbeatable and made Gagliardi, who has never won a tournament, look like a sapling being battered in a storm. The American's controversial father Richard had walked out part way through her 6-4, 6-0, second-round win over German Barbara Rittner apparently dissatisfied with his daughter's performance. But he kept his seat on court two this time. He spent the entire match taking photographs of Serena with a series of different cameras.
But another succession of giveaway points from Williams allowed Gagliardi to pull level in the next game. The 19-year-old Williams, a quarterfinalist at the Australian and French Opens this year, broke to love in the fifth and broke again for 5-2 after Gagliardi had saved four break points before hitting a forehand out on the fifth. Gagliardi, putting up a belated fight, saved the first of three match points but Williams took the match on the second, wrapping up victory in 50 minutes. In Monday's fourth round, Williams will play Bulgarian 12th seed Magdelena Maleeva, who beat American Amy Frazier 6-3, 6-2.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
