Wimbledon 2010: Serena Williams to face Maria Sharapova

Wimbledon Championships
Venue: All England Club, London Date: 21 June - 4 July
Coverage: Live on BBC One and Two, HD, Red Button, BBC Sport website (UK only), Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra; live text commentary online and on mobile phones; watch again on BBC iPlayer Full details of BBC coverage <

Highlights - Serena powers past Cibulkova

By Ian Westbrook
BBC Sport at Wimbledon

Serena Williams wasted little time in securing a fourth-round tie against Maria Sharapova with a 6-0 7-5 win over unseeded Dominika Cibulkova.

The defending champion raced through the first set in just 18 minutes.

The Slovakian seemed to have shed her nerves in the second set in which she played much better, although she still could do little on Williams's serve.

Cibulkova saved a match point in the 10th game but two games later Williams sealed a 67-minute win with her second.

Despite her victory, Williams was unhappy with her display - especially in the second set.

Williams dissatisfied despite win

"I served well in the second set but that's all I did well," she told BBC Sport.

"Hopefully I can keep serving well but I will have to play better than I did today. I am just glad to get to the second week and I hope I can play better in second week than I did in the first - that's the goal."

She added: "I wish I could serve like this in every tournament. At Wimbledon my serve works in every match, otherwise it works when I am in trouble and I worked on my serve a lot after the French Open."

It was the third successive match this Championships in which Williams had won the first set 6-0 and she said: "It is almost better not to win it 6-0 as the crowd gets behind your opponent and you can't blame them. I have started like that because I just always want to do well and I try to do the same thing in the second but it hasn't been able to work out."

Cibulkova said: "She was serving like crazy. It's the best serve I've ever faced, even though I played twice against Venus. I couldn't even hit the ball because it was so powerful and so far away from me on the lines."

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Williams held the opening game of the match to love and then broke after Cibulkova followed a double fault with a wayward backhand.

Another hold to love and a fizzing return put the top seed 4-0 up in just 12 minutes and six minutes later she had wrapped up the set.

Cibulkova finally got on the board by holding her serve to win the eighth game of the match and she held her own as the set progressed.

The 21-year-old was under pressure in the 10th game of the set as Williams set up match point with a great groundstroke - but she saved it by winning a long backhand rally and took the game to make it 5-5 and take the match beyond the hour mark.

Williams held the next game to love and clinched the win a game later.

Sharapova pleased to make second week

The American went 30-15 up after Cibulkova put a backhand long but the Slovakian won the next point after a shot went long from Williams, who then set up her victory chance with a great winner.

The unseeded player then sent a forehand wide and Williams was through to a fourth round meeting with Sharapova, who beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-5 6-3.

"You always have to be ready against her," Williams said. "She's obviously really good, especially on grass. I definitely have to pick up and play better."