Serena saves best for last at Wimbledon

Two-time defending champion Serena Williams believes she enters the second week faster, fitter and stronger than this time last year.

Two-time defending champion Serena Williams believes she enters the second week at Wimbledon faster, fitter and stronger than this time last year.

HT Image

After the top seed defeated big sister Venus for the second successive time in 2003, she went into a knee injury slump which kept her off the tour for eight months.

But the 22-year-old insists the worst of those times are behind her and that she is in the best physical shape she's been in for a long time.

"I'm feeling better. I was disappointed at the end of the first week here last year," said Serena after breezing past Spain's Magui Serna 6-4, 6-0 in less then an hour to make the last 16 on Sunday.

"This year I am feeling better because I have been through a lot physically. To be at this point where I am feeling so good for the first time is a real positive for me."

Serena has dropped just four games in each of her three rounds so far as she stays on course for a quarter-final clash with compatriot and old rival Jennifer Capriati.

"I was really satisfied with my movement on Sunday," explained the champion. "She is a tricky player especially in the second set when she was hitting the slice. But I came to the net a bit more. I am getting better with each round."

Serena enjoyed a title-winning return to the tour in Miami in March but looked jaded when she lost to Capriati in the semi-finals in Rome and to the same opponent in the last eight at the French Open.

That was her earliest Grand Slam exit for three years.

"There has been some legitimate soreness in the knee as well as having the confidence to run.

"It was like 'OK, I'm not going to go as fast as I can, I'll just go a little slower and then I will pick it up.' So that was a major factor."