‘No fear’ Ostapenko – 33 fizzing winners earn win
JELENA OSTAPENKO became the first Latvian to reach the Wimbledon singles semi-finals when she subdued Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 7-5 6-4 yesterday.
Thirteen months after she captured the world’s attention by winning her first claycourt title at Roland Garros, Ostapenko will now hope to contest her first grasscourt final at the All England Club when she meet’s German 11th seed Angelique Kerber in tomorrow’s last four showdown.
“I am fighting till the end and it helps me gain more confidence. It’s great to be in the semis,” a beaming Ostapenko said after beating Cibulkova for the first time in three attempts.
After more than a week of sizzling 30 degrees Celsius temperatures, the players struggled to find their range on a chilly and blustery Court One, where the “feels like” temperature dipped to around the 14 degrees mark.
Four of the first five games went against serve before 12th seed Ostapenko’s game finally caught fire in the 11th game when she broke Cibulkova to love with a blazing backhand down-the-line winner.
Two successive aces, clocked at 165 and 170 km/h, gave the 21-year-old the first set and the 2017 French Open champion tightened her grip on the contest when she ended another flurry of breaks to go 4-2 up in the second.
Cibulkova did her best to try and hang on but the Slovakian was left chasing shadows as Ostapenko blasted a backhand winner on her first match point to reach the last four without dropping a set in this year’s tournament.
There was no let up from Ostapenko throughout the 82-minute contest as she struck the ball with such ferocity that Cibulkova might have wanted to take cover as she watched 33 crisp winners fly off Ostapenko’s racket while her tally amounted to just six.
“I felt today on the court I couldn’t really bring my game into the match because she was really aggressive on the return. She didn’t let me play how I wanted,” said world No 33 Cibulkova.
“She’s playing with no fear. On the grass she’s playing even better than on the clay. It might be her year.”
German 11th seed Angelique Kerber reached the semi-finals with a 6-3 7-5 win over Russian Daria Kasatkina yesterday but needed seven match points to see off the 14th seed.
The highest seed left in the women’s draw, twice Grand Slam winner and 2016 finalist Kerber was 3-0 up in the first set before her 21-year-old opponent had time to react.
Kasatkina steadied herself to reach 3-4 before she double-faulted on break point and lamely surrendered the game to Kerber, who then served for the set.
That was to be the story of the match with the Russian delighting the gasping crowd with some outrageously talented returns and passing shots only to self-destruct on serve.
Kerber again broke to go 3-1 up in the second set before Kasatkina levelled for 3-3, only for another double fault to put Kerber back in the driving seat.
The Russian broke back again for 4-4 but the German replied in kind immediately.
With Kerber serving for a place in the last four, Kasatkina earned two break points with a forehand and levelled the scores before again failing to hold her serve and being left on the back foot.
Kasatkina then saved five match points before surviving yet another thanks to Hawkeye, with Kerber’s lob landing just beyond the baseline. The German finally won through to the semis when Kasatkina’s return found the net.
Serena Williams stayed on track for an eighth Wimbledon title as she fought back to beat Italian Camila Giorgi 3-6 6-3 6-4 in a fiercely contested quarter-final.
German 13th seed Julia Goerges ended the giant-killing run of her close friend Kiki Bertens to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final with a 3-6 7-5 6-1 win.