Venus Williams has scraped through to the next round of Wimbledon in a marathon match against 40-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan. The pair played under the roof on centre court for a crowd which included the wife of the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall.
The American lost the first three games and got stuck on a never-ending break point in the middle of the second set. Ms Date Krumm matched both baseline and net shots to prove a serious challenge to the 31-year-old’s game. The match went to a full three sets and finished on an eighth game. The final scores were as follows:
- Kimiko Date-Krumm: 7 8 3 6
- Venus Williams: 6 6 6 8
Williams displayed a more dominant serve with 12 aces to Date-Krumm’s 1 and a much higher average serve speed. The Japanese star was a fan of playing by the net and both players exhibited breathtaking slams, slices and cross-court shots to try and edge ahead of one another.
Venus eventually won out, however, after two hours and fifty five minutes on the lawn.
