LONDON – For the second time in four days a Wimbledon champion called Williams found herself being whipped by high school teenager but in the end it was Serena Williams dishing out the punishment as she stormed to a 2-6 6-2 6-4 second-round win over Slovenia's Kaja Juvan on Thursday.
The 18-year-old Juvan appeared to have being inspired by 15-year-old Cori Gauff's sensational first-round win over Serena's elder sister Venus, a five-times winner at the All England Club, as she came out swinging to break Serena twice in the opening set.
An ugly smash into the net not only handed Juvan the set but it also left an angry Serena staring at the ball in disgust – and if looks could kill, the ball would have turned to dust.
But if the Court One fans feared that it might be a case of "Gone on the Fourth of July" for America's most decorated tennis player – they had obviously not kept tabs on the career of an athlete who is chasing a record equalling 24th Grand Slam title.
The 37-year-old missed easy slam dunk smashes, she belted the ball wide while on break point, and glared down on the net after yet another of her shots got tangled up in bottom of the black mesh.
But despite producing more unforced errors (26) than winners (24), she put on a winning show for her friend Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, to seal a place in the third round against Germany's Julia Goerges.