In a rematch of last year’s Wimbledon semifinals, Serena Williams once again defeated Julia Goerges and booked a spot in the second week of the grass-court Grand Slam.
Even though Goerges played well, the German never endangered Williams in their third-round match on Saturday, as the American raised her level from the previous round against Kaja Juvan and confidently moved on with a 6-3 6-4 victory on No.1 Court.
The 23-time major champion Serena never faced a break point and one break in each set was enough for her to dispatch the world No.17 Goerges.
In her first service game of the match, the 30-year-old Goerges won five straight points to recover from 0-40 and hold serve, but Williams broke her in the sixth game of the match for a 4-2 lead and won the set on her third set point three games later.
The crucial game turned out to be at 2-2 in the second set as Goerges saved three break points with impressive winners, but after four deuces Williams forced a backhand error from Goerges, broke her serve for a 3-2 lead and consolidated it with a love hold that allowed her to routinely take the rest of the match.
Goerges played an overall good match, but her percentage of points won on the second serve was a disaster, especially in the first set when she won just 22%. When it comes to first serves in the match as a whole, Goerges landed modest 51%, but her conversion was excellent, 83%.
In the fourth round, seed No.11 Williams will play seed No.30 Carla Suarez Navarro, who beat Lauren Davis 6-3 6-3 in 68 minutes earlier on Saturday.
Julia (Mary Jo Fernandez’s twin) has never been a threat to Serena. Rena’s dominated her for years now. This match was a breeze for Serena, which is good since she’s playing mixed doubles. “Congrats, Queen of the grass & women’s tennis! And congrats to you and Andy Murray in mixed doubles today. Victory all the way!”