Williams through after shaky start

Defending champion Serena Williams recovered from a patchy start to race into the fourth round for the loss of just four games against Spain’s Magui Serna on Centre Court.

The top-seeded American struggled to get out of second gear in the opening set, but rallied in the second to run out a 6-4 6-0 winner in just 58 minutes.

World number 53 Serna, who knocked out Britain’s Jane O’Donoghue in the previous round, was holding her own until the seventh game when a wild forehand drifted past the baseline to give Williams a crucial break of serve.

The world number 10 held her next service game to love, but Serna delighted the crowd by returning a difficult shot at her feet before putting away the volley to make Williams serve for the set.

Williams, whose last match against the Spaniard came five years ago, duly accomplished the task after a backhand return drifted wide.

Williams wasted no time in breaking her unseeded opponent immediately at the start of the second set.

Although Serna fashioned her first break point of the match at 30-40 in the next game Williams kept her nerve by sending down a couple of aces to hold serve.

A mis-hit sliced backhand approach from Serna gave Williams break point in the next game, but the six-times Grand Slam winner was left wrong-footed by her 25-year-old opponent to bring the score to deuce.

Williams finally broke again in controversial circumstances when she appeared to over-hit a long backhand but the line judge ruled the ball had clipped the baseline, much to the obvious frustration of Serna.

The left-hander double-faulted to hand the ever improving Williams her third successive break and a 5-0 lead.

And Williams, yet to drop a set at the championships, needed just one of her three match points to reach the fourth round for the fifth successive year.