Image: Tennis – Wimbledon – All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain – July 4, 2018 Serena Williams of the U.S. in action during her second round match against Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova REUTERS/Andrew Couldridge
LONDON (Reuters) – Seven-times champion Serena Williams moved up a gear at Wimbledon to beat Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova 6-1 6-4 on Wednesday and reach the third round.
The 36-year-old American barely broke sweat in a one-sided first set but was tested by the world number 135 in the second without ever looking troubled.
While the Centre Court crowd clearly appreciated the sight of Williams in full flow, they also took a shine to the plucky Tomova who battled hard to make a match of it.
Even ultimate warrior Williams applauded a couple of her opponent’s winners late in the second set before completing victory in 66 minutes.
“It was better than my first round and I’m happy that I’m going in the right direction,” Williams, who took her winning streak at Wimbledon to 16 matches, said.
“I just hope every match is better.”
While the 25th seed was pleased with her progress since her 7-5 6-3 first-round win over Arantxa Rus, she still has a lot of things on her ‘to do list’ before her next test against France’s Kristina Mladenovic.
“There’s so many things that I want to improve on, but that’s kind of how I always feel. Still want to work on getting my first serves in more,” added the American who is looking to draw level with Margaret Court’s record haul of 24 majors.
“I don’t like to be satiated with a great result. I want to continue and do more. For me, that’s just who I am.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman and Pritha Sarkar, editing by Ed Osmond and Neil Robinson)
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