Sports-no-CBC

Even though she is short on matches this year, Serena Williams is still big on grass.

The seven-time Wimbledon champion reached the quarter-finals at the All England Club for the 14th time, beating Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-2 on Monday.

Williams, who missed about a year of play while she had a baby in 2017 but returned to the tennis tour in 2018, before Wimbledon had not played since the third round of the French Open — skipping the grass-court warm-up tournaments.

Williams reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, then retired from a match at Indian Wells, withdrew from matches in Miami and Rome, and then played at the French Open.

"I know that I can play, and now that I'm feeling better physically I almost feel a relief more than anything," Williams said. "Like, OK, finally I can play tennis."

Against Suarez Navarro, Williams won six straight games from 3-2 in the first set and broke for a 5-2 lead in the second. She easily closed it out from there.

Williams, who lost to Angelique Kerber in last year's Wimbledon final, will next face Alison Riske, an unseeded American who upset top-ranked Ash Barty.

Williams' last loss was also against American opposition, Sofia Kenin in the third round at Roland Garros.

Riske ended Barty's 15-match winning streak, and her chances of winning a second straight Glam Slam title.

Riske beat the French Open champion 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and will play in the quarter-finals of a major tournament for the first time.

"I haven't been starting out fantastic in all my matches, but I knew I had the confidence that if I could manage my service games I was going to get looks on her serve," said Riske, whose best previous showing was reaching the third round at Wimbledon and the fourth round at the 2013 U.S. Open. "I had to play aggressive. I had to take it to Ash."

Barty was playing her first tournament as the No. 1-ranked player, and she started off by winning points with her serve against Riske.

In the opening service game, the top-seeded Barty won all four points with aces. She won two more points in her next game with aces, as well. She finished the match with 12 of them.

"I was sticking to how I wanted to play," Barty said. "Then in the second set, I think my serve let me down. I let Alison get back into the match too many times, having looks at second serves."

Elsewhere, No. 8 Elina Svitolina beat No. 24 Petra Martic 6-4, 6-2, Zhang Shuai defeated Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, Karolina Muchova beat No. 3 Karolina Pliskova 4-6, 7-5, 13-11 and Barbora Strycova came from a set and break down to beat Elise Mertens 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

American Coco Gauff, 15, lost to former No. 1 Simona Halep 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round.

Halep broke Gauff five times and took advantage of 29 unforced errors. Gauff saved two match points when serving at 5-2 but Halep clinched the win when the teenager sent a forehand wide in the next game.

Gauff was playing in her first Grand Slam tournament after becoming the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon's main draw in the professional era and knocked out five-time champion Venus Williams in the first round.

Later on "Manic Monday," Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were on the schedule as Wimbledon resumes after its traditional day off.

Source: CBC News

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