The Williams sisters were in action on Friday in each of their respective third round matches with one heading home and the other moving on.

A late rally from Venus Williams wasn’t enough to overcome the high level of play from Kiki Bertens, as she was defeated 2-6 7-6(7-5) 6-8.

Just like in her first two matches of the tournament, Venus got off to yet another slow start losing the first set with little resistance.

The second set saw Bertens continuing at a high level but nerves caused her to squander her lead to allow Venus to take the set to a tiebreak. In the tiebreak, Venus answered back with her own spike in energy. She converted on her fifth set point when Bertens hit a shot wide to even the match at a set apiece.

The third set was great tennis from both players and remained neck and neck to get to 6-6.

Just like at the Australian and French Opens, the final set must be won by two games with no tiebreak.

On they played until, in the 14th game, Venus hit a backhand into the net on match point to give Bertens of the Netherlands the match.

It has been a rough year for Venus compared to 2017 when she made it to two Grand Slam finals. This year she lost in the first round at the Australian Open and French Open.

With the loss the five-time Wimbledon champ will fall out of the top 10 in the rankings.

Bertens will move on to face Karolina Pliskova in the round of 16 on Monday.

With Venus eliminated, it was up to Serena Williams to keep the Williams’ torch going. She did just that in putting on another strong performance by taking out Kristina Mladenovic 7-5 7-6(7-2).

Mladenovic had her chance to serve for the first set at 5-4 but, as Serena has done so many times, she stepped up her game when it was most needed. Here was no different and she broke Kristina to even the set.

After holding her serve to go up 6-5, Serena then put the pressure on Kristina to serve to stay in the set. Mladenovic appeared rattled and, on set point, a double fault handed the set to Serena.

The second set saw a terrific back and forth between the two making way for a tiebreak showdown. Once in the tiebreak, Serena willed the win with two back-to-back aces to take the match.

With the victory, it is Serena’s 17th straight match win at Wimbledon. The seven-time Wimbledon champ won the title here in 2015 and 2016. She missed playing in London last year due to being on maternity leave.

Serena has to be liking her chances more and more for winning the title here again. With Venus losing, only two top 10 seeds remain in Simona Halep and Korolina Pliskova.

Serena will now face Russian Evgeniya Rodina in the fourth round, who took out American Madison Keys earlier in the day.

They are set to play on Monday.

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