World No. 1 Serena Williams of the USA advanced to the Quarterfinals of Wimbledon 2010 by downing No. 17 Maria Sharapova of Russia.
It was a close match from the start, with the 1st set going to a tie-break. Maria had two set points in the tie-break but was unable to convert. Maria then committed a double fault that was a good foot beyond the service line. That gave Serena her third set point. She slammed an ace down the middle and the first set was hers at 11-9. Serena continued hitting booming serves and went on to win the 2nd set 6-4.
Serena served up 19 aces (against only five double-faults), while Sharapova had three aces and seven double-faults. Although their second serves were identical in terms of average speed, Serena’s fastest first serve was 125 miles per hour, nine better than Sharapova’s.
Serena earned revenge for her loss to Maria in the 2004 Wimbledon final, their only previous meeting on grass, and moves ahead 6-2 in their career head-to-head.
Serena will now face No. 9 seed Na Li of China who defeated No. 7 seed, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the Quarterfinals.
