Heather Watson led 3-0 in the final set and then she served for the match at 5-4. And still it wasn’t enough against the remarkable Serena Williams. What a match. That will live long in the memory but despite Watson’s coming-of-age heroics, it’s Williams who moves into the fourth round. Watson can hold her head high. She gave it everything and Williams might not have a tougher match throughout the rest of the tournament. Defeat will hurt but she has around 7,091,435 positives to take from that match. Thanks for reading. Bye.
Serena Williams v Heather Watson: Wimbledon 2015 – as it happened
Serena Williams fought back from the brink to win an astonishing match 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 against the British No1
Fri 3 Jul 2015 14.33 EDT
First published on Fri 3 Jul 2015 11.08 EDTLive feed
Serena Williams wins 6-2, 4-6, 7-5!
Watson moves into a 30-0 lead. Then it’s 30-15. It should be 40-15. Instead Watson somehow drags a backhand wide. She can’t believe it. Williams had already stopped. That feels like a turning point: soon Williams has the first match point of the evening as Watson slices into the net. This is agonising. And it’s not over. Williams nets a forehand return! She soon has another match point - and again she nets a forehand! A third quickly follows, however, Williams turning up the heat and wearing Watson down. It’s a second serve. Williams gets her return over the net. Watson thinks it might be out. It’s not. It’s on the line. It’s. On. The Line. Four little words that have never meant more than they do right now. It’s over. Somehow Serena Williams has won. Watson is given a standing ovation by everyone on Centre Court as he leaves. She was amazing.
Third set: Williams* 6-2, 4-6, 6-5 Watson (*denotes server): Williams charges into a 40-0 lead with a big serve and two aces. She holds to love and now Watson, who served for the match not so long ago, will serve to stay in the tournament. Tennis, eh? It’s not for the fainthearted.
Third set: Williams 6-2, 4-6, 5-5 Watson* (*denotes server): Here’s Heather Watson, then, serving for the match against Serena Williams. No biggie, yeah? Nerves are frayed. Some people can hardly watch. Heart rates are soaring. But this is not going to be straightforward and Williams wins the first point. Watson wins the next point but then she mistimes a forehand, knocked off balance by a big return from Williams. Fifteen-thirty becomes 15-40 when Williams judges a backhand volley to perfection. Two break points, then. In the grand British tradition, Watson is torturing us. She’s living on the edge. She saves the first. Somehow she saves the second, almost hitting a forehand long, grateful when Williams is denied by the net. But it’s only deuce for a second or two: Williams earns another break point with a massive forehand winner. So Watson just comes up with an ace. But she’s going to have to do it again. She can’t, netting a backhand on another break point. Ah. So it’s going to be like this.
Third set: Williams* 6-2, 4-6, 4-5 Watson (*denotes server): The first point is an epic tussle. It feels like you could fit an entire match into it. Watson is on the ropes and somehow she wriggles clear, before a Williams backhand clips the top of the net and lands on her side - 0-15! Williams then blasts a serve off in the direction of Southfields tube station. That was ludicrous. Then she misses her second serve. Absurd. It’s 0-30. Then she wonks an easy forehand long. 0-40. Love-forty. Three break points. Three break points. Oh my. Oh my. Williams comes to the net. Watson sees her coming. Her cross-court backhand is good and Williams volleys long! Watson breaks and she will serve for the match! Have you ever seen anything like this?
Third set: Williams 6-2, 4-6, 4-4 Watson* (*denotes server): The crowd bellows encouragement as Watson runs to the baseline, ready to serve, but she makes a dodgy start, a backhand going long to give Williams a 0-15 lead. This is beginning to look grim. But then again, I might needed my vision tested: Watson wins the next three points for a 40-15 lead and seals the game with a deft little touch, before telling the crowd to turn up the volume. She is queen of all our hearts. “Is there anyone who can veer from crushingly dominant to seemingly hopeless, then back to dominant, like Serena can?” says James Galloway. “She seems to give her opponents not just a sniff but a full inhale, before dashing their hopes like they were nothing.”
Novak Djokovic.
Third set: Williams* 6-2, 4-6, 4-3 Watson (*denotes server): Having gone flat, Watson begins to fizz again when she storms a forehand down the line for a 15-30 lead. The game goes to deuce and Watson clutches at a break point like it’s her favourite cuddly toy when a Williams flies just wide. Williams is sailing perilously close to the wind: a backhand winner lands in by inches, granting her a reprieve. She holds. Watson is entering dangerous territory.
Third set: Williams 6-2, 4-6, 3-3 Watson* (*denotes server): If you’re near a sofa, my advice is to hide behind it. Even when Watson holds a 40-0 lead, Williams wins three straight points to bring it to deuce and this is starting to feel ominous, Djokovic-esque in a way. Watson is leaking fuel. A slice into the net gives Williams a break point. Williams shows no mercy. Clump! She’s won three straight games. It was looking so bleak for her 15 minutes ago.
Third set: Williams* 6-2, 4-6, 2-3 Watson (*denotes server): Momentum may well be back on Williams’s side of the net now but Watson can’t let the disappointment of losing that game get her down. She’s still up a break. But Watson is going to have to really work those sweat glands if she’s going to win this game. Williams holds to love and the dynamic has been altered again. What now?
Third set: Williams 6-2, 4-6, 1-3 Watson* (*denotes server): Heather Watson has had nothing to lose - until now. How will she cope with this situation? She’s in a new and very strange place right now, seemingly in complete control against the great Serena Williams on Centre Court, and a double fault makes it 0-30, before Williams seizes two break points with a whipped forehand winner. The chutzpah from Watson, though: she saves the first with a backhand winner, then the second when Williams slaps a backhand return into the net to make it deuce. But can she save a third? She can! A forehand from right to left opens up the court and she makes no mistake with a backhand from left to right! A desperate Williams is coming on strong now, though, and she earns a fourth break point, screaming as she does so. But she is spurning so many opportunities: she has a look at a second serve and wallops a forehand return long. The tension is unbearable now, especially when Watson double faults and gives Williams a break point; no bother, a forehand winner saves the day and Watson has a point to win the game when Williams nets an attempted forehand pass. If Watson can win this game, they should let her have a quick nap before the next one. The effort she’s putting into this. Yet there’s still work to be done: Williams won’t let go and after bringing it back to deuce, Watson smacks a forehand long. It’s Williams’ 453rd break point of the game and the pressure tells, Watson sending a forehand wide. This isn’t over. Oof. That took a while.
Third set: Williams* 6-2, 4-6, 0-3 Watson (*denotes server): Williams restores a semblance of order to proceedings by cruising into a 30-0 lead. An ace down the middle makes it 40-15 but she is making a lot of mistakes at the moment and another two of them takes the game to deuce, where we stay for a while, until a double fault from Williams presents Watson with another break point. Watson doesn’t need to do anything with it. It’s another double fault from Williams, whose hopes and dreams are falling to pieces before her very eyes. Watson leads by two breaks in the final set. This is incredible.
Third set: Williams 6-2, 4-6, 0-2 Watson* (*denotes server): Williams marched straight to the opposite end at the end of that previous game, head bowed, looking like she’s pretty much done with this tennis malarkey. But appearances can be deceiving: she wins the first point with a superb forehand return, before taking a 15-30 lead with a scarily good backhand. But something isn’t clicking for her right now and she drops the next point with a lazy forehand into the net. Watson is enjoying herself. She likes the drop shot. Another brings her to 40-30 and she consolidates the break when Williams splutters a forehand wide!
Third set: Williams* 6-2, 4-6, 0-1 Watson (*denotes server): Whatever happens from here, you have to say that Heather Watson was magnificent in that second set. It would have been easy for to fold after the pummelling she took in that first set but that’s not in her nature. It feels like something is happening here. It might just be because the wind is blowing on Centre Court. Or it might be that Watson wins the first two points here, moving into a 0-30 lead. Williams then does her Serena thing, two straight aces making it 30-all, but then she cracks a backhand into the net to hand over another break point. This is turning into a classic. This could be one of the greatest days in British tennis history - because Watson breaks when Williams sends another forehand wide.
Heather Watson wins the second set 6-4 to level the match!
Remember, Watson broke earlier in the set and dropped her serve in the next game, so needs a good start here. And she gets one, Williams misfiring with a forehand return. Watson clenches her fist. She needs three more points. But a tame second serve is seized upon by Williams, who batters a forehand away for 15-all. The next point is a classic: drop shots, dinks, slices and a neat volley from Watson at the end to make it 30-15. She needs two more points. She still needs two more points when Williams crunches a backhand on to the line for 30-all. She still needs two points when she double-faults to give Williams a break point. She’s stopped making first serves. It’s a problem. Not to worry, though: she spanks a backhand down the line to save it! Soon she has a set point, Williams tamely netting a forehand. But Williams won’t lie down. She won’t make this easy. She saves it with a forehand winner and it’s back to deuce. Yet Watson is made of tough old boots and she has another chance when Williams nets a forehand return. Set point number two, then. And this time, she does it. Williams nets another backhand return and we are going to a decider and Heather Watson is just brilliant.
Second set: Williams* 6-2, 4-5 Watson (*denotes server): Williams doesn’t look happy with herself when she pulls a backhand wide at 30-15, even less so when another one sails off target, handing Watson ... a break point. This, you feel, is a big moment. And it is: Williams completely falls apart, sends a forehand wide and Watson breaks and the crowd are on their feet and Heather Watson is going to win Wimbledon serve for the second set!
Second set: Williams 6-2, 4-4 Watson* (*denotes server): Watson strains as she tries to win the first point but Williams has other ideas. Drop shot. Smash. 0-15. Watson is impressed. She decides to try some of that, but with a slightly different flavour. Drop shot. Lob. 15-all. Then: ace, 30-15. This is good from Watson, who’s refusing to fold. Yet the game goes to deuce, Watson wailing in frustration as she mishits a forehand. This match still has some life left in it, though: Watson holds, Williams suddenly losing her ability to return.
Second set: Williams* 6-2, 4-3 Watson (*denotes server): Williams moves Watson around effortlessly and wins the first point with another backhand. But Watson can spy another break when she grabs the next two points. No more of this, thinks Williams, no more, as she takes command of the game.
Second set: Williams 6-2, 3-3 Watson* (*denotes server): That was a weirdly erratic game from Williams, who created problems for herself with some dreadful tennis. She does have this tendency to drop her concentration levels when she’s in control. But can Watson take advantage? She needs to. She needs to not put a drop shot into the net at 0-15. She puts a drop shot into the net at 0-15 - and it’s 0-30. The next rally is pure torture. A couple of Watson shots don’t look like they’ve got enough height on them. Eventually she outwits William, who drags a forehand wide. But Watson then drifts a backhand long to give Williams two break points, an immediate route back into the second set. The first one goes begging. But not the second: Williams punishes Watson’s sloppiness with a huge backhand.
Second set: Williams* 6-2, 2-3 Watson (*denotes server): A collector’s item on the first point, as Watson hangs on with some outstanding scampering at the back of the court, eventually leading to Williams dumping a smash into the net. Moments later, Watson is dinking a drop shot away for a 0-30 lead. What’s happening here? The crowd is getting properly into this now and it might be affecting Williams’s concentration. Or maybe not. She makes a couple of odd sounds in the next rally and wins it with a storming forehand from right to left, before putting her entire life force into an ace for 30-all. But Watson has finally come alive and a cracking forehand return earns her a first break point of the match, Williams slapping a riposte into the net. Lucky Williams has that serve, though; it gets her out of trouble and to the relative safety of deuce - but then she whacks a forehand long to give up another break point. This time she misses a first serve - and her second goes into the net! I don’t believe it. Watson has broken. Watson has broken!
Second set: Williams 6-2, 2-2 Watson* (*denotes server): An idiot in the crowd informs Watson that she can do it just as she’s about to serve, disrupting her equilibrium and allowing Williams to do it with a brilliant backhand return for 15-all. Watson has hit a few nice backhand winners, though, and one more of those, plus a couple of decent serves, guide her to another hold.
Second set: Williams* 6-2, 2-1 Watson (*denotes server): Another Williams service game flies by.
Second set: Williams 6-2, 1-1 Watson* (*denotes server): It’s currently a major event here when Watson wins a point. She moves into a 30-15 lead. “You can do her, Heather!” someone shouts. We’ll see. This is nifty, though, a charge to the net to reach a drop shot, whereupon Watson dinks a forehand past Williams, who sportingly applauds the inventiveness. The crowd’s applause is even louder when Watson holds.
Second set: Williams* 6-2, 1-0 Watson (*denotes server): Watson is reeling from the disappointment of that first set. She was never in it. Williams has been so clinical, so good.
Serena Williams wins the first set 6-2!
At 15-all, a Williams forehand is called out. The umpire says it was in and orders them to replay the point. Watson challenges: it was in and the point goes to Williams, who then has two set points when a frustrated Watson batters a forehand off in the direction of Court 18. Oh dear. This hasn’t taken long and the set is over in 25 minutes when Watson, forced back by a huge forehand from Williams, blocks a backhand long. There are stiff upper lips everywhere you look on Centre Court. That was quite the reality check.
First set: Williams* 5-2 Watson (*denotes server): A little cheer goes up when it looks like Watson has won the first point - but her shot was out. Still, she wins the next one, Williams netting a backhand. Williams responds with two magnificent points, though, an ace and a backhand winner making it 40-15. One more missile off the backhand side seals the game. Watson is barely winning any points on the Williams serve.
First set: Williams 4-2 Watson* (*denotes server): Watson could do with a stress-free hold here. She gets one. But can she break back?
First set: Williams* 4-1 Watson (*denotes server): Watson is undeterred by losing her serve, a brilliant backhand down the line winning her a point at 15-0. That’s more like it, a sign that Watson can have some joy if she goes for her shots. But Williams is serving impeccably and she holds to 15 easily enough.
First set: Williams 3-1 Watson* (*denotes server): Watson goes for a wide ace on the first point. Wide. Her next serve goes long. Double-fault, 0-15, less than ideal. Williams soon has two break points, her power too much for Watson, who knocks a forehand wide. Watson responds well, saving the first with a pinpoint backhand from left to right, her trademark shot, but Williams is merciless with the second one, softening up her prey and skelping a forehand down the line to secure the first break. There goes that optimism!
First set: Williams* 2-1 Watson (*denotes server): There was a deafening roar when Watson held the previous game. But there’s a long way to go and Williams means business, moving into a 30-0 lead with an agile volley, Watson’s attempt to pass her with a forehand not good enough. Williams holds to love.
First set: Williams 1-1 Watson* (*denotes server): “If you love Heather Watson, clap your hands!” is the chant, which is fair enough, only it’s delivered in an Aussie twang by those crazy Fanatics, which is a bit odd. Everyone complies, though, chuckling at the hilarity of it all as they put their hands together. It inspires Watson into a 40-15 lead, an ace getting her within touching distance of a crucial hold, but there’s a warning shot from Williams, a rasping backhand return that forces deuce. A lone voice in the crowd urges Williams on but she lets herself down with a couple of errant returns and Watson holds.
First set: Williams* 1-0 Watson (*denotes server): Here she comes then, Heather Watson, the British No1 hoping to cause an almighty stir against the world’s greatest player, Serena Williams. There’s a huge roar as she runs to the baseline. She’s got the backing of the crowd at least. But there’s ample respect for Williams too. It’s the favourite who opens the serving. She wins the first two points, the first with a ripped backhand, the next with an 112mph ace. Someone winces. Then, at 40-0, Watson wins her first point on the Williams serve. “Let’s go, Serena!” someone shouts. Not sure where she’s meant to go, but she decides to go to Aceville.
A few Aussie Fanatics have been allowed on to Centre Court. They’re chanting their support for Heather Watson. It didn’t do Bernard Tomic much good against Novak Djokovic.
Williams almost took a line judge’s head off with a smash just now. This is just the sparring portion of the evening.
But how about this? Serena Williams is not invincible on grass. That might seem like fighting talk but it’s the truth. Sabine Lisicki beat her in the fourth round in 2013 and Alize Cornet beat her even earlier last year, so why not, eh? It’s hard to envisage Watson winning, though. It doesn’t feel like it’s about to happen.
Tok! Tok! Tok! The players are knocking up here on Centre Court. Heather Watson got a massive reception from the crowd. It’s her first time here against this week - and what a chance this is for her. Mind you, she’s just put a smash into the net during the warm-up, which doesn’t necessarily bode too well for her against the best player in the world.
Preamble
Hello. The last time Heather Watson reached the third round of Wimbledon, it did not go well. She was only 20 and her big day on Centre Court was over before she had even time to settle in, Agnieszka Radwanska thrashing her 6-0, 6-2. It was a clinic and after her win against Daniela Hantuchova on Wednesday, Watson admitted that she did not know how to handle the occasion against Radwanska. I remember overplaying totally and thinking she was going to be this amazing player that, you know, I’m going to have no chance against,” the British No1 said. “I tried to hit winners on the first ball. That was no good. This time around, you know, this isn’t my first, second or third Wimbledon. I’ve been here a few times now. I’ve gotten a feel for playing the top players. At the end of the day everybody’s human. Everybody’s going to make mistakes. Everybody is going to have good days and bad days.”
This most thoughtful and pleasant of athletes knows herself well and three years on from that chastening experience at the hands of Radwanska, Watson reckons that she is better equipped to deal with the pressure now. She has been playing good tennis this week, beating the No32 seed, Caroline Garcia, over two days in the first round and following that win up by outclassing Hantuchova on Court 1 the next day. But today it’s Centre Court and a date with Serena Williams. Today it’s Serena Williams.
Watson must have dreamt of this moment. She used to have the world No1’s poster on her wall and now she’s playing against her on one of the most famous sporting arenas in the world. She’s never faced her before and it’s the biggest match of her career so far, a meeting with the five-time champion, a holder of 20 majors overall, a player who’s on a mission to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to make history and win the calendar slam. Surely Williams isn’t going to have that snatched out of her hands today.
Play begins: soon.