BIRMINGHAM–
Venus Williams stormed her way into a first ever Birmingham quarterfinal by defeating a hapless Qiang Wang 6-3 6-2.
The American came into this tournament with very few match-wins under her belt, but she’s made a seamless transition to the grass, winning her first two matches without much threat coming from the other side of the court.
Wang had a sole victory against Williams to work with, which came at the French Open last year. But she looked awfully out of place on a grass court, as the American’s grass-court pedigree really ended up shining through.
Venus Williams made her presence felt very early on in the contest, generating five break points in Wang’s opening service game. The American, meanwhile, continued to hold her serve comfortably for the remainder of the set. The baseline firepower difference between the players was vast, as Williams had the benefit of a strong backhand cross-court and some devastating forehand winners to go alongside it, and she ultimately proved to be the player that was much more capable at driving through the court at will. She reminded us of her familiarity with the surface on the whole.
Wang just couldn’t find much of an avenue into the match to make it compelling or interesting at all. The lack of control and trust in the forehand side showed up continuously in the second set, and even when she did have a little bit more time to express herself she never looked at all comfortable and lacked the shear weaponry to alleviate pressure for herself in the baseline rallies. But the biggest problem of all was her second serve. Williams was picking her targets, pushing Wang back from the first shot on the second serve return and then doing what she wished for the rest of the point. And with Wang’s first serve percentage decreasing at an alarming rate in the second set, it became a troublesome problem that she couldn’t overcome.
Venus’ thoughts on the victory
Williams did stumble somewhat to serve the match out. She got her serve broken for the first time in the match at 5-0 in the second set, but she recovered things well with some nice moves forward into the forecourt and some gorgeous moments of finesse when required.
“Yeah, I think just the focus today was really there. That was great,” Venus said. “My opponent, she also played well, too. It was nice to be able to have answers for her play.
I guess I had some fun on the court, too. Some of those calls… I don’t know. You never know which way it’s gonna go.”
Williams is a five-time Wimbledon champion and perhaps one of the greatest grass-court players of all-time. Even at 39 years old, she can still make things happen on a good day on the grass. She understands her game better than anyone, but that rings even more true when she returns to the grass, where she has dominated previously. She’ll need all of that grass-court experience when she tries to bring down Australian No.1 Ashleigh Barty in what will be the most star-studded quarterfinal in Birmingham.
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