Four-times champion Serena Williams let out a primal roar after escaping with a nail biting three-set third-round Wimbledon win over China’s Zheng Jie.
Williams required a record 23 aces to see off Jie, a former semi-finalist at the All England Club, 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 9-7 on a warm and windy Saturday at London’s SW19.
“It was good to win that. I needed a tough match like that and she’s always playing me incredibly well,” the sixth seed said.
“I’m just fighting everything and playing hard. She’s playing unbelievable on grass, so I’m just doing the best I can.
“I thought I definitely want to go out with a bang.”
A bang indeed, the 13-times major winner’s massive ace tally eclipsed her own Wimbledon record set in the 2009 semi-finals Elena Dementieva.
“It definitely helped me out today because I wasn’t doing my best on my return like I normally do,” Williams said.
“So it’s good to know that I can rely on that.”
But the American’s fourth-round opponent, Kazakh wildcard Yaroslava Schvedova, a converted doubles star, set a record arguably even more impressive.
Certainly rarer.
Shvedova is only the second known player in the 45-year-open era to record a “golden set” – winning all 24 points in a set – during her 6-0 6-4 – rout of Sara Errani, Samantha Stosur’s French Open semi-final vanquisher.
“I never knew that existed,” Williams said.
The only previous player to record a golden set was American Bill Scanlon in his 6-2 6-0 first-round defeat of Brazilian Marcos Hocevar at Delray Beach in 1983.
Remarkably, Shvedova also held the previous women’s record for the most consecutive points won – the first 23 points of her match against American Amy Frazier in Memphis in 2006.
Even more remarkably, Schvedova went on to lose the match 1-6 6-0 6-0.
Errani’s exit aside, there were no major surprises in the women’s draw.
Defending champion Petra Kvitova crunched American Varvara Lepchenko 6-1 6-0 to march to within one win of a quarter-final blockbuster with Williams.
First up for Kvitova is a fourth-round date on Monday with former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, who trounced Czech Klara Zakopalova 6-0 6-4.
Belarusian second seed Victoria Azarenka downed Slovakian qualifier Jana Cepelova 6-3 6-3 to set up the first heavyweight showdown of the tournament on Monday against Ana Ivanovic.
The Serbian 14th seed edged past German Julia Goerges 3-6 6-3 6-4.
In the day’s other two matches, Italian Roberta Vinci beat Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3) and Austrian Tamira Paszek, who won Eastbourne last week, defeated Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.