Brutal Venus mauls Makarova

Venus Williams
12 April 2012

Venus Williams powered into the third round of Wimbledon with a 6-0 6-4 victory over Ekaterina Makarova on Centre Court.

Williams gave the spectators a display of brutal hitting as she raced through the first set.

Makarova showed a lot of fighting spirit to stay in the match in the second set, even breaking the second seed when she served for the match, but in the end Williams showed why she is so formidable on grass by sealing victory at the next opportunity.

Makarova's undoubted confidence was swiftly dented as Williams held to love before breaking at the first opportunity.

A double-fault took the second seed to break point in Makarova's second service game. The Russian saved that and the one that followed but Williams' weight of shot was simply too much and she made no mistake on her third opportunity.

Williams was powering down serves and making very few mistakes, and the whitewash was completed when Makarova chased despairingly after another crunching forehand.

The Russian finally got on the board in the second game of the second set, earning warm applause from the crowd but she could simply make no impression against the best server in the women's game and inevitably it was Makarova who found herself under pressure again when she dropped to 0-40 in the sixth game.

This time the 22-year-old found some big serving of her own to save those three break points and then a fourth but on the fifth Venus struck again. It looked all over but Makarova battled well to force Williams to serve out the match and then produced her best tennis when it really mattered to break the American when she floated a backhand long.

Indeed, Makarova looked poised to level proceedings at 5-5 but chose to back off rather than press home her advantage and found herself at deuce.

A match point came and went for Williams but a double fault brought up a second one and this time the Russian could only fire a backhand wide to give the five-time champion victory in an hour and five minutes.

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