Serena escapes Wimbledon upset
Hard-fought win against Camila Giorgi sends her to semifinals for 11th time
WIMBLEDON, England – Fate was not stacked in favor of 52nd-ranked Camila Giorgi even though the Italian is technically ranked 129 spots ahead of Serena Williams.
For starters, Williams is a seventime Wimbledon champion with 23 overall Grand Slam tournament singles titles while Giorgi was competing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
The 181st-ranked Williams, on the comeback trail following maternity leave, held a 10-2 record in Wimbledon quarterfinals heading into the match, having lost only to Jennifer Capriati in 2001 and Justine Henin in 2007.
Williams had never dropped a set in three matches against Giorgi, though that record was altered Tuesday.
The bottom line: An Italian woman has never advanced to a Wimbledon semifinal and still hasn’t after Williams clinched a hard-fought 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win to earn an 11th trip to a Wimbledon semifinal.
“I knew going in it wasn’t going to be an easy match,” Williams said. “I don’t know what I did. I knew after the first set, I said, ‘All right, let’s go three sets.’ ”
Williams’ ranking has already improved to No. 51 by reaching the semifinals. If she heads into the final she’ll go up to 28, and if she wins an eighth Wimbledon trophy she’ll land at No. 14.
“Well, it’s better than 183 or whatever I am,” said Williams, laughing. “Got to keep trekking on, though. Serena Williams, 51, eh. It doesn’t have that same ring to it. The 1 part does, but not the 5.”
In the opening set, Williams had difficulty dealing with the depth, pace and occasional acute angles in Giorgi’s game.
Once Williams found her footing, never offering Giorgi another break point after the sixth game of the first set, she recovered from the one-set deficit.
Williams, who lost only 14 points on serve in 14 service games despite losing the first set, put the match permanently in her control when she broke Giorgi’s serve at love in the third game of the third set.
“It’s weird. Sometimes I feel, ‘ Man, I’m in trouble,’ ” Williams said. “Sometimes I feel fight. For whatever reason, today I was so calm. Even when I was down the first set, I thought, ‘Well, she’s playing great. I’m doing a lot of the right things. It is what it is.’ ”
She became the first player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal without facing a player ranked in the top 40 since Victoria Azarenka won her second consecu- tive Australian Open title in 2013. Giorgi is the highest ranked player she’s faced at Wimbledon in five rounds.
Williams, 36, is hoping to grab her eighth Wimbledon title, which would equal Australian Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles won.
This is her second major, and fourth tournament overall, since Williams returned from maternity leave in March. At the French Open she reached the fourth round but withdrew from the match against Maria Sharapova because of a pectoral injury.
Interestingly, Williams says it’s not her past victories she focuses on for motivation. It’s the memories of defeats that push her forward.
“I hate losing,” she said. “That’s no secret. But you got to lose. I feel like ev- ery time I lose, I get better. I think it’s important for me to have the losses. Just the fewer the better for me.”
Williams will play 13th-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany in the semifinals Thursday. Goerges, playing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, defeated
20th-seeded Kiki Bertens of Netherlands 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
“I played Julia in the French,” said Williams, who won their third-round match in straight sets. “That was four or five weeks ago. That doesn’t matter. This is a whole new match. It’s a new surface. We’re starting from zero.”
The other women’s semifinal features 11th-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany against 12th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.