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Dustin Brown tries for encore

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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>World No. 1 trailed 3-0 in final set</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Howard Fendrich</p><p>AP Tennis Writer</p></bylineMeta></div><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Heather Watson of Britain, during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_Serena-Wimbledon.jpg</photo0><caption0>Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Heather Watson of Britain, during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Friday. </caption0></div></div>
<p>LONDON &#8212; Twice, Serena Williams stood merely two points from a loss at Wimbledon against a British opponent buoyed by a roaring, flag-waving Centre Court crowd.</p><p>Twice, Williams was oh-so-close to the end of her bid for a fourth consecutive major title &#8212; and for the third leg of a calendar-year Grand Slam.</p><p>And twice, pushed to the precipice, Williams regrouped, resisted and wound up winning, as she so often does.</p><p>Stomping her foot after misses, alternately screaming in delight or despair, even wagging her finger at fans who booed her, the No. 1-seeded Williams overcame a surprisingly staunch challenge from 59th-ranked Heather Watson and emerged with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory in the third round Friday.</p><p>&#8220;I honestly didn&#8217;t think I was going to win,&#8221; said Williams, who trailed 3-0 and 5-4 in the final set. &#8220;How I pulled through, I really don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p><p>Her 24th victory in a row at Grand Slam tournaments sets up a showdown Monday against another five-time Wimbledon champion, her older sister Venus.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been facing each other a long time,&#8221; said the 16th-seeded Venus, who eliminated 82nd-ranked Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2.</p><p>This will be the 26th all-Williams matchup, and first at a major since Serena beat Venus in the 2009 Wimbledon final.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s unfortunate that it&#8217;s so soon,&#8221; Serena said.</p><p>Other women&#8217;s fourth-rounders Monday: 2004 champion Maria Sharapova vs. Zarina Diyas; Victoria Azarenka vs. Belinda Bencic; and French Open runner-up Lucie Safarova vs. CoCo Vandeweghe of the U.S., who had never been this far at a major.</p><p>Men&#8217;s matchups: defending champion Novak Djokovic vs. Kevin Anderson; French Open champion Stan Wawrinka vs. David Goffin; Richard Gasquet vs. Nick Kyrgios.</p><p>Denis Kudla, an American wild-card entry, reached the second week at a major for the first time and awaits the winner of U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic against American John Isner, whose match was suspended because of darkness at 10-all in the fifth set. It harkened back to Isner&#8217;s record 70-68 fifth-set victory spread over three days in 2010, but he and Cilic have a looooong way to go to equal that marathon.</p><p>Nothing in that match, or any other Friday, offered up the tension and drama provided by Williams vs. Watson. Especially once Watson &#8212; playing steadily, if unspectacularly &#8212; appeared on the verge of a significant upset.</p><p>&#8220;She just did everything so well. I wasn&#8217;t able to keep up. You know, sometimes you just don&#8217;t have your day,&#8221; said Williams, who lost in the third round at Wimbledon last year. &#8220;I thought maybe today just wasn&#8217;t my day.&#8221;</p><p>Sure looked that way when Watson took six straight games to go up two breaks in the third set. Then came an epic, 18-point game that began Williams&#8217; comeback. Watson twice was a point from leading 4-0, but she looked a bit tight, shanking a forehand about 5 feet long, then pushing a forehand wide to get broken.</p><p>Still, she broke Williams at love for a 5-4 edge, moving within a game of by far the biggest victory of her career.</p><p>At the ensuing changeover, Union Jacks of various sizes flapped in the swirling wind while chants of &#8220;Heather!&#8221; reverberated through the nearly century-old arena. When play resumed, yells came during points, and Williams complained to the chair umpire, drawing jeers.</p><p>&#8220;It was really intense today,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve never heard boos here.&#8221;</p><p>At deuce, potentially two points from the end, Williams produced a forehand winner. Moments later, again at deuce, again two points from defeat, Williams conjured up another big forehand.</p><p>&#8220;When she needs to hit the line or needs to hit a winner, she&#8217;ll just do it,&#8221; Watson said, &#8220;and that&#8217;s what she did.&#8221;</p><p>That began a match-closing run of three consecutive games for Williams, who held at love for a 6-5 lead with four unreturned serves.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know where she found this strength today to win it,&#8221; said Williams&#8217; coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, &#8220;because she was so far mentally at a certain point.&#8221;</p><p>Williams broke Watson to finish things, yet even that didn&#8217;t come easily. Williams needed three match points, cashing in the last with a backhand return that forced a miss by Watson.</p><p>There weren&#8217;t all that many unforced errors from Watson: She totaled 11; Williams 33.</p><p>&#8220;She couldn&#8217;t play better,&#8221; Mouratoglou said about Watson. &#8220;She played the perfect match.&#8221;</p><p>At the moment, even that is apparently not enough to beat Williams.</p><p>Now her older sister will give it a try.</p>

Serena avoids upset at Wimbledon