Kerber primed for Ostapenko battle in heavyweight clash
THE womens’ singles may have seen a succession of upsets by lower ranked players, but one of tomorrow’s semi-finals will bring together two former Grand Slam champions.
Angelique Kerber, who won the Australian and US Opens and reached the final here in her annus mirabilis in 2016, will take on Jelena Ostapenko, last year’s French Open champion, after the German and the Latvian won their quarter-finals in straight sets yesterday.
Kerber held off Daria Kasatkina’s spirited challenge, beating the 21-year-old Russian 6-3 7-5 on Centre Court, while Ostapenko had too much firepower for Dominika Cibulkova on Court One and beat the Slovakian 7-5 6-4.
Having struggled throughout 2017, Kerber has recaptured her form of two years ago since recruiting Wim Fissette as her coach after the Belgian parted company with Johanna Konta at the end of last year.
Ultimately it was a victory for German efficiency over Russian flair, and the end-of-match statistics told their own story. Kasatkina hit 33 winners to Kerber’s 16 and made 31 unforced errors to the German’s 14.
This was the seventh meeting between the two women in the last two years — they went into the match with three wins apiece — and was just as tightly contested as their quarter-final in Eastbourne last month, which Kerber won in a final set tie-break.
Kasatkina had three break points in the opening game, failed to take any of them, and was soon 3-0 down. The Russian retrieved the break to trail 4-3, only to drop serve again in the following game. Kerber promptly served out for the first set as Kasatkina hit a loose backhand beyond the baseline on the German’s second set point.
Kerber again drew first blood in the second set, breaking serve in the third game thanks to another erratic backhand by Kasatkina, but once again the momentum swung back and forth. Kasatkina broke back for 3-3, only to drop her own serve once again in the next game.
By now, both players were playing tennis of the highest order. Kasatkina was going for her shots at every opportunity, while Kerber was striking the ball with relentless consistency. By the time Kerber broke to lead 6-5 there had been six successive breaks of serve.
The drama reached a climax when Kerber served for the match. Kasatkina saved six match points, three of them with drop shots and another with a brilliant forehand cross-court winner. On the seventh, however, Kerber hit a big forehand into a corner which Kasatkina was unable to return.
“I was expecting a really tough and close match against Daria,” Kerber said afterwards. “We’ve played so many tough battles in the past. Today I was just trying to play it point by point. I think we both played at a really high level especially at the end.”
Having beaten one 21-year-old, Kerber will now take on another in Ostapenko, who is one month younger than Kasatkina, and is the only one of last year’s quarter-finalists to make it through to the same stage 12 months later. She has won all five of her matches so far in straight sets, w
Cibulkova, the World No.33, would have been seeded here but for Wimbledon’s decision to seed Serena Williams despite the American’s lowly world ranking.
The former Australian Open runner-up has seemed determined to make a point but, after beating Johanna Konta and Elise Mertens, was unable to claim a third scalp.
The Slovakian saved five break points in the opening game, lost the sixth, but broke back immediately. Both players broke serve again before the first set settled into a more predictable pattern, but everything changed when Cibulkova served at 5-5.
The Slovakian went 0-40 down and was then left rooted to her baseline when Ostapenko slapped a big backhand return winner down the line. This time there was no way back as Ostapenko served out for the set to love, finishing the job with two successive aces.
Cibulkova retrieved an early break at the start of the second set, but Ostapenko broke to lead 3-2. The World No.12 served out for the match and secured her victory after 82 minutes with a backhand winner. It was her 33rd winner of the match.