Serena Williams advances to the semifinals at Wimbledon.
Serena overcomes go-for-broke tactics by Giorgi to advance
WIMBLEDON, England — Marion Bartoli knew she had to do something extraordinary to have a chance against Serena Williams in their fourth-round meeting at Wimbledon in 2011.
So Bartoli decided not to hit any second serves. If she missed her first serve, she’d simply blast another first serve with all her might, rather than a high-percentage second serve, and not worry about double-faulting.
“If you serve under a certain speed, she’s just going to expose that constantly and (gain) so much confidence, that it’s pointless to do so,” the now-retired Bartoli said when asked Tuesday how she had managed to upset Williams in straight sets.
In doing so, Bartoli joined an exclusive club as one of just nine women (all but two now retired) to beat Williams on the grass at Wimbledon.
As Bartoli sized up what remains of a 2018 women’s field that lost its top 10 seeds to earlyround upsets, she saw no plausible outcome other than a Williams victory.
“She is not a human; she is just a hero,” Bartoli of Williams, who’s seeking her eighth championship at the All England Club and 24th Grand Slam title just 10 months after giving birth to her first child. “It’s really difficult to (compete) with a hero.”
Unseeded Camila Giorgi was the latest to try in Tuesday’s quarterfinals on Centre Court, employing high-risk tactics similar to Bartoli’s seven years prior.
The Italian blasted her serve with abandon, taking little off the pace on her second serves, and attacked short balls, seemingly disinterested in any margin for error. It worked in her favor in the early going: The 52ndranked Giorgi, 26, became the first to win a set against Williams in the tournament.
But as she has done at each stage here, in just her fourth tournament back since maternity leave, Williams, 36, elevated her play.
Trailing the surprisingly hard-serving Giorgi by a set, Williams fired a 122-mph serve (her fastest all tournament) to start the second set, as if to declare she had no intention of being bounced from Wimbledon just yet.
“I went for it,” Williams said of the serve afterward. “I’m like, ‘I’m going as hard as I can on this one.’ ”
“Come on!” Williams screamed after clinching the second set with a service winner to level the match at one set apiece.
Then she broke Giorgi early in the third set and stood firm, earning a spot in Thursday’s semifinal with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
In doing so, Williams extended her unbeaten streak at Wimbledon to 19 matches and set up a semifinal meeting with 13th seed Julia Goerges of Germany, who dismissed good friend Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands.
“For whatever reason, today I was so calm,” Williams said. “Even when I was down the first set, I thought, ‘Well, she's playing great,' but I'm doing a lot of the right things.”
Germany’s Angelique Kerber, the highest women’s seed remaining (11th), ousted Daria Kasatkina of Russia in straight sets to advance to Thursday’s other semifinal, in which she’ll face Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who topped Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets.
Former British No. 1 Anne Keothavong, who is among the roughly four dozen retired pros who returned to Wimbledon for this year’s Legends invitation doubles matches, had no answers when asked what it would take to beat Williams this fortnight.
“They know they have to play their absolute best if they want to stand a chance against her — and hope that she has a really bad day,” Keothavong, 34, said with a smile.
On the men's side, No. 5 seed Juan Martin del Potro won his encounter with Gilles Simon to set up a quarterfinal clash with Rafael Nadal in a match carried over from Monday.