Down an early break, Serena throws down to rout Beck in third round

SW34 is TENNIS.com's Wimbledon blog that will provide on-site news, insight and commentary about a pair of legendary 34-year-olds, Roger Federer and Serena Williams, as they look to once again triumph at the All England Club.

LONDON—On Middle Sunday, Serena Williams and Annika Beck met for the first time on Centre Court. And on what seemed like the first sunny day of the tournament, Williams cruised into the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-0 win in just 51 minutes.

The two wouldn’t seem to have much in commons, but neither played a single event between Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and both survived difficult encounters to make it this far. In the first round, Beck saved match points against Great Britain’s Heather Watson before prevailing, 3-6, 6-0, 12-10; Williams had her own battle in the second round against Christina McHale, eventually seeing her way through, 6-7 (7), 6-2, 6-4.

The 22-year-old Beck, who reached the third round of Wimbledon for the first time, is the fourth-highest ranked player in Germany (No. 43), behind Angelique Kerber, Andrea Petkovic and Laura Siegemund. She holds two WTA titles to her name, the last coming in Quebec City in 2015.

Despite the ups and downs of her previous match, Williams, a six-time Wimbledon champion, remained confident.

“I've been through a lot in my career, on the court and off the court,” she said after defeating McHale. “I've been in every position you can be in. So I know mentally I'm, hands down, one of the toughest players out here. It's very difficult to break me down mentally.”

After a routine opening game, a few sloppy errors and double faults saw Serena trail her scrappy opponent 1-2. But a nervous game from Beck gave the break right back at love—which was all the opening Williams would need. In her defense, Beck has never seen a stage like this before. Middle Sunday still brought in a nearly full crowd, though a fairly empty Royal Box.

“It was nice,” Williams said. “Obviously, I love having that Sunday off, but I’m a little behind in my matches so I guess I had to play an extra day.”

Settling in, Williams looked like she was eager to play an efficient match on what should have been her off day, racing ahead to win the next four games for 5-2.

“I think my start was good, I still want to get out to a little better start,” Williams said. “I was really focused and calm today.”

With how Williams easily wins points on serve, it's a much tougher ask to beat her without a great serve, and Beck’s isn’t extraordinary by any means.

Since breaking into the Top 100 in 2012, Beck has stayed predominantly in the 50s, though she reached her career-high ranking of No. 39 soon after her best-ever major performance earlier this year. Beck reached the fourth round of the Australian Open and the followed that with a third-round showing at Roland Garros.

Beck gets a lot of balls back, and her efforts were rewarded with a hold for 3-5, with a huge point forcing a Williams volley error and riling up the crowd for the first time. The game would be Beck’s last.

Williams was too much a force for the inexperienced Beck, hitting 25 winners to the German’s two, and keeping her unforced errors in check at 14. Williams rattled off six straight games to win her 300th Grand Slam match, 6-3, 6-0.

“Was it? Cool, nice. I had no idea,” Williams said about the milestone win. “That’s awesome right? I think that’s a lot of matches, OK that’s a lot of wins.”

She next takes on a familiar opponent in Svetlana Kuznetsova, who survived a two-day marathon against Sloane Stephens, 6-7 (1), 6-2, 8-6.