STRONG WILL’
Serena ignores ankle injury, rallies into Wimbledon semis
WIMBLEDON, England — Slowed by a balky ankle, trailing by a service break in the third set of her Wimbledon quarterfinal, Serena Williams appeared to be in trouble Tuesday against an opponent playing the tournament of her life.
Williams was down, yes. But out? No way. And now she is two victories from that 24th Grand Slam title that has been barely eluding her.
Lifting her play a muchneeded notch down the stretch to grab the last three games, capping the comeback with her 19th ace — at 121 mph, no less — Williams reached the semifinals at the All England Club by gutting out a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over 55th-ranked Alison Riske.
“I had to just button up and play hard,” said Williams, who owns seven Wimbledon titles. “She was playing her heart out.”
That she was. Riske, a 29year-old from Pittsburgh, was appearing in her first major quarterfinal. This was Williams’ 51st.
That might have made all the difference. It’s Williams who possesses boundless muscle memory in these situations, who knows what it takes to come through in the tightest contests on the biggest stages.
“I definitely thought maybe I had a peek here and there at a couple openings, but Serena really upped her level, as only a champion would,” Riske said.
“It was really, actually, very interesting for me to be on the opposite end, because I felt her up her game and her intensity,” Riske said with a smile. “Yeah, I hope she takes the title now.”
Next for the 37-year-old Williams will be a match against 54th-ranked Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, who reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at age 33 with a 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory over No. 19 Johanna Konta of Britain. The other semifinal Thursday will be No. 7 Simona Halep of Romania against No. 8 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
After edging Riske in singles, Williams cooled down by riding a stationary bike while holding her nearly 2year-old daughter, Olympia, in one arm. Then Williams went out and joined Andy Murray to win their secondround match in mixed doubles 7-5, 6-3 against Fabrice Martin and Raquel Atawo.
Even if Williams was hardly perfect, she got by, aided by her greatest-in-thegame serve and Riske’s miscues. Most glaringly, Riske double-faulted five times in the final set, at least somewhat a result of trying to do too much against William’s superb returns.
Williams rolled her right ankle and her movement was hardly ideal. Late in the second set, she was visited by a trainer, who applied extra tape to the ankle. That was during a stretch when Riske, talking to herself between points, had claimed four games in a row to take the second set and lead the third by a break at 1-0.
“I thought,” Riske said, “I was very close.”
Not close enough.