Wimbledon 2012: Yaroslava Shvedova claims 'golden set'

Yaroslava Shvedova did not lose a single point in first set

The unseeded 24 year-old achieved the feat - known as a golden set - at the start of her third-round victory over French Open runner-up Sara Errani on Wimbledon's Court Three.
She held serve three times and broke 10th seed Errani each time to take 24 consecutive points in 15 minutes.
Errani staged a fightback at the start of the second set and, in an unforeseen twist, she broke Shvedova’s serve. But Shvedova stepped up her game to tie up a 6-0, 6-4 victory. “Today I laid a golden egg!” she wrote on Twitter.
The International Tennis Federation confirmed the feat was unique in grand slams.


"I had no idea," said Shvedova of her remarkable run of points.
"I was just playing every point and every game. I didn't feel like it was every game was 40-0.
"I was so focused in such a zone. I remember like first or second ball of the second set she won. All the people start to like clap and scream. I was like, 'What's going on?'"
"She was impossible to play against," Errani said. "I don't even feel like I played a disastrous match. She was hitting winners from every part of the court."


No woman had ever won a set without dropping a point on the professional circuit before, although Shvedova was the one who came closest. Remarkably, Shvedova won 23 consecutive points at the start of her match against American Amy Frazier in round two at Memphis in 2006 and took the set 6-1. More remarkably, she lost that match 1-6 6-0 6-0.


Shvedova’s reward is a meeting with Serena Williams in round four. “Hopefully I’ll be able to win a point in the set,” Williams joked. “That will be my first goal, and then I’ll go from there.”