Williams left wary and needing to improve against ‘golden’ girl

Williams wasted little time or energy in seeing off Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Melinda Czink earlier in the week, but the American was below par in her three-set thriller over China’s Jie Zheng on Saturday.

The 30-year-old lost the first set and needed to dig deep to defeat the 25th seed 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 9-7 and move into the last 16, where she will face Sara Errani’s tormentor-in-chief Yaroslava Shvedova.

Little was known about Shvedova until Saturday afternoon when she pulled off a ‘golden set’ – winning 6-0 without dropping a point – against 10th seed Errani.

Much harder opponents than the Kazakh await Williams in the latter stages of the tournament – she is due to face Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka ahead of a possible final – and the 13-time grand slam winner concedes she will have to improve to progress.

“I have to make sure I do better,” said Williams. “Usually, I return well but I hit so many errors off my returns against Zheng. I was just off against her, although she played unbelievable.”

The first thing on Williams’s agenda will be to succeed where Errani failed and win a point in the first set.

The four-time Wimbledon champion added: “I thought she had won four grand slams in a row and the Olympics. That’s the only golden thing in tennis I know of.”

Shvedova has lost the one meeting between the two three years ago, in straight sets, and this is the first time she has made the fourth round at SW19.

Most of her success has come in doubles, but her win over Errani has left Williams wary.

“She’s a really good player and she’s playing well,” added Williams, who will play Shvedova first on Court Two.

Williams’s main rival for the Championships, world No 1 Maria Sharapova, will move in to the quarter-finals today if she beats 15th seed Sabine Lisicki on Court One.

Kvitova has failed to repeat last year’s Wimbledon success at other major tournaments and she began her title defence with a nervous win over Akgul Amanmuradova.

The Czech has improved hugely since, however, losing just five games in her encounters against Elena Baltacha and Varvara Lepchenko.

Like Williams, Kvitova reckons she must improve if she is to make Saturday’s final.