COCO VANDEWEGHE of the United States returns a ball to Maria Sharapova during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London on Tuesday.
Even as Serena Williams piled up aces and groundstroke winners from all angles, even as she stormed through seven games in a row and 10 of the last 13 in yet another comeback, her Wimbledon quarterfinal against Victoria Azarenka never felt like a runaway.
That’s because Azarenka, a two-time major champion and former No. 1 in her own right, was playing spectacular tennis, too, nearly the equal of Williams in every facet.
Nearly.
For when Williams finds her best game, she becomes unbeatable. And for her past 26 Grand Slam matches she is, indeed, unbeaten. Erasing an early deficit at Centre Court, Williams got past Azarenka 3- 6, 6-2, 6-3 Tuesday with the help of 17 aces and a remarkable ratio of 46 winners to 12 unforced errors.
She is closing in on a fourth consecutive major title for a self-styled Serena Slam, which she already accomplished in 2002-03. Pull that off, and Williams also will have the third leg of a calendar-year Grand Slam and go to the U.S. Open with a chance to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four major trophies in one season.
In Thursday’s semifinals, No. 1 Williams faces No. 4 Maria Sharapova, who beat unseeded American CoCo Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-2.
Williams is 17-2 against Sharapova, including 16 straight victories. But one of Sharapova’s wins came at Wimbledon, in the 2004 final, when at age 17 she stunned Williams for the first of her five Grand Slam titles.
The other semifinal is No. 13 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland against No. 20 Garbine Muguruza of Spain.
Radwanska, the 2012 runner up at Wimbledon, eliminated No. 21 Madison Keys of the United States 7-6 (3), 3- 6, 6-3. Muguruza reached her first major semifinal by defeating No. 15 Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-5, 6- 3.
Radwanska compiled 13 winners, 35 fewer than the big-hitting Keys. But on the flip side was this statistic: Radwanska made seven unforced errors, Keys 40.
Just as Keys pushed Radwanska, the 47th-ranked Vandeweghe gave Sharapova all she could handle, especially in the second set, building a 19-5 edge in winners. Soaking it all in during her first Grand Slam quarterfinal Vandeweghe repeatedly waved her arms after significant points.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
