Wimbledon 2010: Serena Williams in the mood for return of Maria Sharapova

With the possible exception of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, it would be fair to say that when Serena Williams plays her best, she is the best player in the world. As the world No1, that might sound like a statement of the proverbial obvious, but when she is in the mood, the American can produce tennis of a calibre that few, if any, can match. On the evidence of the first week here, she is in the mood. There have been times when her commitment, motivation and even fitness have been questionable, but in the past 18 months she has been far more focused. In fairness, she has always saved her best for the grand slams, winning four of the past seven and on present form, she looks every inch the favourite to win her third title here. Her 6-0, 7-5 victory over Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia yesterday was a mixture of brilliance in the first set, when she lost just six points, and a second set in which her opponent raised her level to make a contest of it. Williams slammed 19 aces and hit just nine unforced errors but, ever the perfectionist, she was still annoyed that she had even given Cibulkova, the world No46, a chance to work her way into the match. "She definitely picked her game up," Williams said. "She's a good player. But I also think I slid a little bit. It's important for me to stay level and stay with my game but I wasn't able to do that. I just thought that I could have played better in the second set. I just kind of came off the gas a little too much. You just can't do that in big grand slams like this." In the few moments when the Williams serve was threatened, it came good, as it so often does. The American possesses the finest service action on the tour, a rhythm that never seems to break down, no matter the pressure. "I serve well at Wimbledon for some unknown reason," Williams said. "I wish I could serve like this every tournament. For the most part my serve works when I'm in trouble. At Wimbledon it works the whole match." Williams will need to maintain her form tomorrow when the tournament hots up. The American will face the former champion Maria Sharapova, who defeated her for the title in 2004, for a place in the quarter-finals, after the Russian No16 seed battled to a 7-5, 6-3 win over the Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, ranked 68. Sharapova is still working her way back after an elbow injury forced her off the tour for a couple of months earlier in the year and she was out for nine months from August 2008 up to May of last year with a serious shoulder problem that caused her to re-model her serve. There are still things she needs to improve but is relishing the upcoming test. "I love playing against her [Serena Williams]," she said. "She's the defending champion, she's great on this surface, she's won numerous grand slams. If there's a challenge ahead of you, I enjoy that." More than anything, the Russian was satisfied to have made it into the last 16 at a grand slam for the first time since the French Open last summer. "I've been really happy in the last few weeks I've been able to play matches and come through some tough ones against good opponents that really challenged me and stay healthy," she said. "That's really been the key." The Danish third seed Caroline Wozniacki fought off the challenge of the Russian teenager, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 7-5, 6-4, while the No7 seed Anastasia Radwanska hammered Sara Errani of Italy, seeded 32nd, 6-3, 6-1. Tenth seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy was dumped out 6-2, 6-3 by Czech Klara Zakopalova, while No14 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus also went out, beaten 7-5, 6-0 by another Czech, Petra Kvitova, on Court No18, the venue for the 11-hour marathon between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut.