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Serena goes walkabout before winning
Serena Williams recovered from a miserable start to defeat Italian Mara Santangelo 2-6 6-3 6-2 and take her place in the third round at Wimbledon.
Twice former champion Serena Williams recovered from a miserable start on Thursday to defeat Italian Mara Santangelo 2-6 6-3 6-2 and take her place in the third round at Wimbledon.
The fourth seed, plagued by injury this season after her triumph in the Australian Open, looked a pale shadow of her powerful self at the start.
"Basically, I didn't play, I just competed. I don't think I played well," she shrugged.
"I was feeling a little problem in my left leg in the beginning, so it was kind of just getting the feeling, getting used to it.
"Right now I'm working on playing through the pain and just seeing how it goes."
Williams, winner of seven grand slam titles, started tamely against an opponent who refused to be overawed.
Her ground strokes lacked their usual fluency, her booming serve deserted her. Shoulders slumped, she could not believe her own patchy form.
Santangelo, who is ranked 120 places below Williams in the world, raced to a 4-0 lead.
Williams saved three set points at 5-1 but Santangelo then served out for the first set.
In the second set, the controlled fury of Williams's power play returned with a vengeance as she imposed her will on the willowy Italian.
TECHNICAL THINGS
Her grunts reached new heights of determination and her accuracy finally returned.
As evening shadows gathered on Centre Court, the Italian's resistance crumbled in the deciding set which Williams won easily.
But it took 96 minutes to stamp her authority over a lowly opponent who should have been dismissed in half the time.
"I definitely think I'm going to have to pick up the level of my game... just not hitting it the way I want to, and I'm not doing technical things the way I would like to.
"So I keep promising the next match I'm going to do A, B, C and D. And I didn't do it today.
"So, in the last set, I'm like, 'Okay, in the next match, I promise to do A, B, C, and D,' then I stopped. And I'm like, 'No, I'm going to do it now.'
"So I think that was a step that I actually started doing a little bit of the things I wanted to work on in the end of the third set.
"But I'm here to stay. I think I have the best chances of people left in the draw. I think I'm probably the most mentally tough person out here.
"I feel as if I have nothing to lose and only things to gain and I want to win this title really bad."
