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Wimbledon 2013: Serena Williams open to Andy Murray match

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Serena Williams says she is open to the possibility of playing Andy Murray in an exhibition match after booking her place in round three at Wimbledon.

The 26-year-old British number one was challenged by a Twitter user to take on the five-time Wimbledon champion and Murray admitted he would be open to playing Williams in Las Vegas.

The womens’ world number one completed a 6-3 6-2 victory against Caroline Garcia on Thursday, and was asked whether she would accept the contest.

“It would be fun, but I doubt I’d win a point,” Williams replied.

“He’s probably one of the top three people I definitely don’t want to play. But, yeah maybe we can have a little bit of a showdown. That would be fine.

“I get alleys. He gets no serves. I get alleys on my serves, too. He gets no legs, yeah.”

The suggestion echoes the famous tie between the then 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, a tennis superstar of the 1930s and 1940s, against Margaret Court and Billie Jean King.

The match in 1973 was a huge hit with tennis fans drawing in a massive worldwide audience that was dubbed the Battle of the Sexes.

Riggs was victorious against Court but was beaten by King and following that match-up, Jimmy Connors took on Martina Navratilova in Las Vegas in 1992.

Connors revealed in his autobiography The Outsider that he bet a huge $1m that he would win that match, and fortunately for his wallet, he did just that.

And the Wimbledon second seed Murray, writing in his column for the BBC, said: “I have been challenged by someone on Twitter to take on Serena Williams and I’d be up for it.

“I’ve never hit with her but she’s obviously an incredible player and I think people would be interested to see the men play against the women to see how the styles match up.”