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The typically reserved 38-year-old American
broke Watson six times and showed rare flashes of emotion after
critical points in the two-hour affair, pumping her fist and
shouting.
"I'm calm. I can't help how I am," the third-seeded Williams
said when asked if she would continue with the new on-court
demeanor.
"But I'm definitely fired up inside."
Next up for the seven-time grand slam champion is a showdown
with Maria Sakkari of Greece, who strolled to a 6-0 6-1 win over
Hungarian Timea Babos earlier in the day.
"I've got to play my best again," said Williams, who has gotten
the better of the 23-year-old Sakkari in their two prior
meetings.
"It's never easy. I've got to earn it just like tonight so I'll
be doing the same thing tomorrow."
Williams is the highest remaining seed in the tournament after
defending champion Madison Keys withdrew from the tournament on
Thursday prior to her second-round match against Ajla
Tomljanovic due to pain in her right wrist.
The hard-hitting 23-year-old, runner-up at last year's U.S. Open
where she lost to fellow American Sloane Stephens, is ranked 12
in the world and was the second seed in San Jose.
"I am really sorry to have to pull out of the Mubadala Silicon
Valley Classic," Keys said. "I have been feeling pain in my
wrist over the last couple of days and felt worse today.
Keys was replaced in the draw by Polish lucky loser Magdalena
French who fell 6-4 3-6 6-3 to the Australian Tomljanovic to set
up a quarter-finals battle with Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu on
Friday.
On Wednesday top-seeded Spaniard Garbine Muguruza withdrew due
to a right arm injury.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Ken Ferris/Amlan
Chakraborty)
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