Venus gets her own back in commanding win

By Sonia Oxley

LONDON (Reuters) - Revenge was on Venus Williams' mind as she pelted the Spaniard who had dared to knock her out of this year's Australian Open with a series of baseline bullets and service missiles at Wimbledon Saturday.

Williams put her finger on the trigger and did not stop firing until she had won eight games in a row and hammered home to the upcoming Carla Suarez Navarro that there was only one seven times grand slam champion on the Centre Court.

The American showed some mercy in the second set, allowing her opponent to win three games in a row, but soon regained command to triumph 6-0 6-4 and set up a fourth-round meeting with Serb Ana Ivanovic.

"Today I realised that it wasn't the same match (as in Australia), and I was determined to really run away with it," Williams told a news conference, saying it had been good to avenge the Melbourne second-round defeat.

"(It was) completely different circumstances. In Australia, I had a lot of opportunities, but didn't take advantage of them," the five-times Wimbledon champion added.

After spectators had risen to their feet applauding to mark Britain's first Armed Forces Day, they were soon cheering again as Williams took charge of the on-court battle.

POWERFUL SERVE

Against a Williams serve that reached up to 124 mph, the Spaniard swatted ineffectually at the ball and could not make any impact on the 33-minute first set.