Wimbledon:Serena Williams clinched one of the most dramatic victories of her career tonight, battling cramp to beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 6-7 6-2 in the fourth round at Wimbledon.
The American seventh seed looked down and out when she collapsed in agony on the Centre Court turf at 5-5 in the second set, having roared back from 5-2 down.
Crying with frustration and screaming in pain Williams needed lengthy treatment before hobbling on to reach a tiebreak when rain came to her rescue at 4-2 down.
When play resumed nearly two hours later Hantuchova finished off the tiebreak with three successive points but Williams was not about to give up without a fight.
A bad-tempered Williams began to move more freely and with Hantuchova seemingly strangled with nerves, the 2002 and 2003 champion surged into a 5-2 lead.
She brought up a match point with a belting drive volley and ended the contest when a bemused Hantuchova netted a backhand.
Meanwhile as the top seeds avoid it like the plague, Venus Williams admits she enjoys dicing with death on the 'Graveyard of Champions'.
The 27-year-old three-times former champion defied the curse of Court Two for the second time in seven days to set up a fourth-round showdown with Maria Sharapova.
Williams, who lost to a little-known Jelena Jankovic on Court Two last year, had to come from behind there in her first-round match against Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva and was on the brink again on Monday before securing a 6-2 3-6 7-5 win over a battling Akiko Morigami.
"I like Court Two," she said. "Court Two is where I've had a lot of great times so it's okay.
"It's definitely invigorating to win a match like that. Winning this kind of match is invaluable in this tournament."
The Japanese world number 71 built on a 4-1 overnight lead by winning the second set to level the match when play resumed an hour after the scheduled start.
Morigami then appeared to fold when she served for the match at 5-3 but Williams made no mistake when her chance came despite steady drizzle which turned into a mini downpour seconds after she clinched victory.
Williams was quick to defend her less experienced opponent, who has never been past the third round in six successive appearances at Wimbledon.
"I don't think she choked," she said. "I don't think she gave it away. She played really well but I was able to play a little better.
"She played tough and didn't give me too many points. I had to go out there and take it because I knew she was going to go for it."
Rain had come to Williams' aid on Saturday afternoon when she found herself a double break down after winning the first set.
Morigami produced a love service game upon Monday's resumption to make it four games in a row and looked like making up for lost time.
Williams, the champion in 2000, 2001 and 2005, lost her grip on the match after encountering all sorts of problems with her serve on Saturday and she came up with four double faults in her opening service game of the day.
Down 0-40, Williams saved six set points before finally holding and then broke her Japanese opponent to get the score back to 3-5.
However, her woes continued in the next game in which she came up with four more double faults and, although she saved three more set points, Morigami broke for a third time to take the set 6-3 and level the match.
Both players battled to come from 0-40 down on their own serve as the deciding set went with serve until the eighth game when a lucky net cord gave Morigami a break point and Williams followed it with a 14th double fault of the match.
Serving for the match amid rising tension at 5-3, the Japanese girl was broken to love and she dropped her serve again to trail 5-6.
To add to the drama, rain began to fall as Williams served for the match but play was allowed to continue and the American came from 15-40 down to clinch victory after two hours and five minutes.
Williams will need to lift her game is she is to repeat her 2005 semi-final win over Sharapova after producing 42 errors but insists there are no dramas over her serve, despite coming up with 14 double faults.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with it," she said. "If anything, I think it helped me a lot in this match.
"There were times when I was down 0-40 or down some break points where my big first serves brought it back to deuce.
"So for me I always see my serve as an asset. In life and in tennis, there are going to be some mistakes.
"But it's all about how you look at it. For me, I feel like my serve is just fine, so I'm okay."