Wimbledon: Tara Moore goes down with a fight to end British interest in women's draw

Williams sisters also made to work hard for victories elsewhere in the women's singles competition

Tara Moore put up a brave display before exiting at the second round stage (Getty)

Tara Moore’s Wimbledon adventure is over but the 23-year-old Briton could be proud of her battling performance in a 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 defeat to Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Moore, the world No 227, frequently surprised the former US and French Open champion with her bold attacking play. The last British player left in singles competition, who was playing here courtesy of a wild card, hit 30 winners to the Russian’s 20, though her tally of 32 unforced errors – 15 more than her opponent – was an equally telling statistic.

Kuznetsova made a flying start, winning the first two games before the players had to leave the court because of rain. The world No 14 maintained her grip when they returned, winning the first set with something to spare.

Moore, however, came flying out of the blocks at the start of the second set. Going for broke, she quickly established a commanding lead before levelling the match.

Kuznetsova won the first three games of the deciding set, but Moore refused to buckle. The Briton won three of the next four games and had Kuznetsova at 15-40 when the Russian served for the match at 5-3. Kuznetsova, however, steadied the ship and after Moore had saved a first match-point with a bold forehand return she netted an attempted drop shot in the second.

Serena and Venus Williams were both pushed to the limit by younger opponents before securing their places in the third and fourth rounds respectively. Serena lost the first set to Christina McHale and recovered from 2-0 down in the third to beat her fellow American 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, while Venus survived rain breaks and a battling performance by Darya Kasatkina to beat the Russian 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 after two hours and 41 minutes.


 Serena Williams celebrates victory over Christina McHale (Getty)

The Centre Court roof was used for the latter stages of Serena’s match, but the defending champion had more trouble with her opponent than she did with the conditions. McHale, the world No 65, played one of the matches of her life before Williams closed out victory to keep alive her hopes of matching Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.

In the first set Williams never recovered from a controversial moment when she thought she had won it. On set point at 5-4 a McHale forehand was called long, but as Williams walked back to her chair Hawk-Eye ruled that the ball was in. McHale went on to win the tie-break 9-7, upon which an angry Williams returned to her chair and hurled her racket in frustration.

Williams recovered well to take the second set, only to make a slow start to the third. McHale will surely long regret the double fault she made at 2-0 and 40-15. She went on to lose that game, though she still had her chances, including points for a 5-4 lead. Williams, however, recovered to break serve in that game and went on to secure victory with three successive aces.

Sister Venus, who at 36 is the oldest woman in the draw, overcame a 19-year-old opponent who was just a few weeks old when the American made her debut here in 1997. Kasatkina, who is making her Wimbledon debut, has climbed 128 places in the world rankings in the last year and pushed the former champion hard from the start.

One of the rain interruptions came with Williams on match point at 7-6 in the deciding set. When they returned Kasatkina won the next three points, but at 8-9 she was unable to defend Williams’ third match point as the American hit a crunching return of serve.