The world No. 1 breezed into the third round of Wimbledon Thursday with a 6-1 6-1 victory over South African Chanelle Scheepers.
The demolition lasted just 49 minutes and was more than enough to confirm Williams’ status as favorite for a sixth Wimbledon crown.
“I’m always the favorite,” the American told reporters at the All England Club.
“It’s been that way for the last three years and maybe years before that. So it can create pressure. But it’s OK — I’d rather it was that way.”
Being the favorite, and defending champion, did not help Williams at last month’s French Open, where she crashed out in the second round.
The 32-year-old is now taking a softly-softly approach to the British grass court tournament, as she aims to finally claim her 18th grand slam to tie with legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
She next faces French 25th seed Alize Cornet, who won their last meeting on hard courts in Dubai this year but lost their first three encounters.
“I don’t want to feel great necessarily right now because hopefully I have several more matches I can play,” said Williams.
“The goal for me is just to feel a little better every day. I feel there’s some things I still want to work on to hopefully stay in the tournament.”