Serena Williams’s year of living very dangerously in the Grand Slam tournaments continued on Friday.
After what seemed a routine opening set against the unseeded British player Heather Watson, Williams soon found herself on the brink of what would have been a massive third-round upset on Centre Court as Watson won the second set and then served for the match at 5-4 in the third.
But Williams, the world’s No. 1 player, again found a way to wriggle free and keep alive her quest for her first calendar-year Grand Slam.
Williams’s 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory put her into the fourth round of Wimbledon, where she will face her older sister Venus, who defeated Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia, 6-3, 6-2, in a match that generated much less suspense on Court 2.