Serena still fighting for rights under bright lights
Top seed and defending champion Serena Williams breezed into the Wimbledon fourth round, but vowed to keep fighting for equal rights under the bright lights of the All England Club. World number one she may be, but the 31-year-old American was slated as the last match on Court One on Saturday.
With two marathon men's matches before her, she saw her third round clash with 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm suddenly shifted to Centre Court under the roof and the lights.
Her match did not start until around 19:30GMT much to her annoyance.
"Well, it is their policy. I have talked about how I am always fighting for the ladies time and time again. Maybe one day we will get 2 matches and the men will get 1 match, and maybe they will be able to switch back and forth, but it is definitely something we have to still work on," says Williams.
Williams was reluctant to get into a slanging match with All England Club schedulers despite her status as a five-time champion and 16-time Grand Slam singles trophy winner.
"I was a little surprised that I was playing third on after two men but I was not annoyed. I am able to deal with any circumstance," she said.
Her 6-2, 6-0 win over Date-Krumm gave her a Monday match-up with German 23rd seed Sabine Lisicki for a place in the quarter-finals.
Saturday's win was the 600th of Williams's career as the American continued her gentle cruise towards a sixth Wimbledon title.
A win on Monday will also give her a 35th successive victory, taking her level with sister Venus's record set in 2000.
"Wow, 600 wins. I had no idea. What better place than under the roof at Centre Court to achieve it," said Williams.
She admitted that despite the late shifting of her court on Saturday, she was a definite convert to playing under the Wimbledon roof for the first time.
"It is definitely special. I prefer this one because it is indoors and it is grass," she said.
"I missed all those indoor carpet tournaments in the '90s that I should have played, and I did not know that that was really good for my game. Playing indoors on grass, for me is like amazing. I love the atmosphere. I love the sound that the ball makes,” she says.
"I feel like it is really just incredible. You hear the sound. I feel like the crowd is louder. It just feels really cool," she added.
Lisicki, a semi-finalist in 2011 and a quarter-finalist in 2009 and 2012, when she knocked out Maria Sharapova, said she would not be overawed by the challenge.
She can certainly match the American's raw power, coming into Wimbledon, the German had fired 185 aces in 2013, second only to her opponent's 268.
"I was in that situation last year when everybody was saying that Sharapova was the favourite. I am probably going into that match as the underdog, but I like that," said the 23-year-old.
Source: SABC