Serena battles through pain to beat Hantuchova

Serena Williams clinched one of the most dramatic victories of her career yesterday, battling crippling cramp to beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 6-7 6-2 in the fourth round at Wimbledon.

At 5-5 in the second set the American seventh seed was screaming in agony on the baseline after her left calf muscle seized up with Hantuchova serving at 30-15.

It seemed her Wimbledon dream was going to end in pain and tears but two hours later, after rain had interrupted the match for the third time, she came out fighting like a wounded tiger to overwhelm a bemused Hantuchova.

Centre Court fans may have endured a frustrating day, but their patience was rewarded with an extraordinary display by the eight-times grand slam champion.

Williams will now have to patch herself up for a mouthwatering quarter-final duel with world number one Justine Henin who cruised past Patty Schnyder hours earlier.

The world number one made the most of a short dry spell yesterday to reach the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-2 destruction of Patty Schnyder.

The Belgian, who completed a hat-trick of French Open titles last month, has dropped only 15 games during her stroll into the last eight.

"I was a bit surprised the match was so quick," Henin told reporters. "I've done my job perfectly so far."

Venus Williams looked as though she was hurtling towards defeat against a Japanese skiing fan before fighting back to set up a fourth-round Wimbledon tie against another former champion Maria Sharapova.

Williams was one game away from tumbling out but, as rain began to fall again on the grasscourt tournament, she outsmarted Akiko Morigami 6-2 3-6 7-5.

Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, number six Ana Ivanovic, Nicole Vaidisova and Nadia Petrova needed to win only a handful of games yesterday to complete their progress into the fourth round.

Russian 12th seed Elena Dementieva, however, was upstaged by a 16-year-old Austrian. Tamira Paszek, the youngest player left in the draw, underlined her growing reputation on the circuit to thwart 25-year-old Dementieva 3-6 6-2 6-3.

Venus Williams was two breaks down in the second set when torrential downpours over southwest London halted play on Saturday.

On resumption her fortunes dipped further when she lost the set after being broken again.

Morigami, the last Asian left in the field, seemed to have won the psychological battle when she came from 0-40 down to hold her serve for 3-2 and was gifted a break three games later thanks to a Williams double fault.

But the three-times former champion clung on to deny Morigami a famous victory and made no secret of what the win meant to her, jumping up and down to celebrate her great escape.

Nadal struggles

Seventh seed Tomas Berdych ended Asian interest in the men's competition when he squeezed past South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik 6-4 7-6 7-6 to reach the last 16.

Rafael Nadal showed why he is a triple grand slam champion after taking a 2-0 lead in the final set of his rain-interrupted third-round match against Sweden's Robin Soderling.

The French Open champion looked down and out after squandering a match point and dropping the third and fourth sets against the world number 28.

The match, originally scheduled for last Saturday, was suspended for rain at 6-4 6-4 6-7 4-6 2-0 yesterday.

Other results: Youzhny bt Nieminen 7-5 7-6 7-3; Bjorkman bt Arthurs 6-2 6-1 6-4; Baghdatis bt Nalbandian 6-2 7-5 6-0.