Gallant, bizarre win for Serena Williams
Serena Williams` mother advised her to stop playing. Sister Venus urged her to continue. Serena wavered briefly, then decided to keep on going despite a painful calf strain that left her screaming and writhing behind the Centre Court baseline at Wimbledon. "I would have felt weird if I hadn`t tried," she said.
A rain delay of nearly two hours bought her a little time to recover and regroup Monday, and with both legs wrapped, she won the third set to beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-2.
The gallant, bizarre victory advanced Williams to the quarterfinals, where she`s scheduled to face top-ranked Justine Henin - if she`s able.
"She got through," said her mother and coach, Oracene Price. "Can she go through another one? You don`t know what the pain`s going to be like next time."
It was bad enough against Hantuchova. The injury, described as a spasm-induced left calf strain, struck after Hantuchova hit a forehand winner for a 5-5, 30-15 lead in the second set. Williams grimaced, grabbed her calf, tapped it three times with her racket and crumpled to the lawn.
"I had a very bad acute muscle spasm," Williams said. "Acute, as you know, is a really intense pain."
She remained down for seven minutes, screaming in pain when a trainer massaged the calf.
But she decided to continue, wiping away tears just before the match resumed.
She kept playing for another 11 minutes, hitting shots weakly and walking stiffly in pursuit of the ball. But she managed to hold for 6-all, then won the last two points before rain forced a delay.
"I was literally saved by the rain," Williams said.
Price said she wanted her daughter to call it quits.
"I`m thinking it`s really not worth all that, to go through all that pain and maybe injure herself worse," Price said. "She`s not going to listen to me, not when it comes to Wimbledon."
Williams decided to continue. When the match resumed, she moved better, hit aggressively and won the final four games.
Hantuchova was erratic, flustered by the unusual circumstances.
"I lost it," she said. "I had my chances."
Venus Williams endured a drama of her own to reach the fourth round. The three-time champion rallied past Akiko Morigami 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in a match suspended Saturday, even though she faced 23 break points, double-faulted 14 times and had to rally at the end.
"They`ve got fight," Price said. "If they don`t have nothing else, they`ve got fight."
Henin had a much less arduous victory, beating No. 15-seeded Patty Schnyder 6-2, 6-2 in 56 minutes.
Henin-Williams would be a rematch of the same round at the French Open, where Henin won en route to her fourth Roland Garros title.
In men`s third-round play, 2006 runner-up Rafael Nadal was one point from victory when he hit a forehand barely wide. His replay appeal was rejected, and his match with Robin Soderling was immediately halted by rain with the score 7-all in the third-set tiebreaker.
Play resumed but was stopped for the night with Nadal leading 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 2-0.
No. 7 Tomas Berdych beat Lee Hyung-taik 6-4, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3). No. 10 Marcos Baghdatis defeated No. 23 David Nalbandian 6-2, 7-5, 6-0.
In the completion of third-round matches suspended Saturday, No. 5-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-3; No. 6 Ana Ivanovic defeated Aravane Rezai 6-3, 6-2; No. 11 Nadia Petrova swept Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-3, 7-6 (3); and No. 14 Nicole Vaidisova beat Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-2.
No. 12 Elena Dementieva lost to 16-year-old Tamira Paszek of Austria 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
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