National Post (National Edition)
SERENA WILLIAMS ONE MATCH FROM 24TH SINGLES MAJOR.
WILLIAMS A WIN FROM TYING GRAND SLAM RECORD
Mixed doubles with Andy Murray was fun but Serena Williams got back to the serious business as she powered into her 11th Wimbledon final by overwhelming unseeded Czech Barbora Strycova in a brutal 6-1, 6-2 victory on Thursday.
Clobbering huge serves and forehands, the veteran American was always in control as she set up a showdown with Romanian former world No. 1 Simona Halep in Saturday’s final.
The 37-year-old will become the oldest woman to contest a Grand Slam final in the professional era and will have another chance to equal Margaret Court’s record 24 singles majors, having lost in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals last year.
“It’s good, especially after my year. It definitely feels good to be back in the final,” said Williams, who has played sparingly this year because of knee problems.
“It’s definitely a lot better, I just needed some matches. I know I’m improving and I just needed to feel good and then I can do what I do best which is play tennis.”
Strycova, the oldest first-time Grand Slam semifinalist at 33, boasts a tricky game that scrambled the mind of Britain’s Johanna Konta in the quarter-finals.
But seven-time Wimbledon champion Williams, still seeking her first title since becoming a mother in 2017, is made of much sterner stuff and simply bulldozed her way through her opponent’s lightweight resistance.
Strycova held for 1-1 in the first set but any notion that a contest would break out disappeared in the blink of an eye as she was overwhelmed by Williams’ power to trail 5-1.
She had a chance to slow Williams’ advance when she got to 0-40 on the 11th seed’s serve with the help of a netcord but Williams
raised the tempo to reel off five points, ending the first set in 27 minutes with a booming ace.
Strycova bashed down an ace of her own as she held serve at the start of the second set and held firm until 2-2.
It was only a temporary lull in the onslaught.
Williams piled on the pressure in Strycova’s next service game.
Having just watched a forehand winner whistle past her, Strycova double-faulted and fluffed an attempted drop shot to hand over the break of serve.
The end came quickly. Eyes narrowing on the target, Williams made it 4-2 with a love service game and broke again for a 5-2 lead — Strycova emitting a piercing scream as she wafted a straightforward volley into the tramlines.
The crowd was willing Strycova to hang in for a little longer and roared their approval when she showed great defensive skills to win the first point as Williams served for the match — the 54thranked Czech raising her arms in salute.
But Williams, who delighted home fans by partnering with Murray in the mixed doubles here, was in no mood for nonsense.
She fired down a huge serve on match point and when Strycova clawed it back she stroked away the simplest of forehands to seal her place in the final.
In the other semifinal, Halep rolled over Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-3. Halep took nine minutes to hold serve in the opening game of the encounter and the first two games alone lasted 20 exhilarating minutes, featuring 10 break points. Svitolina could have been up 2-0 if she had capitalized on the numerous opportunities that fell her way.
Instead, it was Halep who ran away with a victory that put her one win from becoming the first Romanian to lift a Wimbledon singles trophy.
“It is an amazing feeling. I am very excited and nervous, It was one of the best moments of my life and I am trying to enjoy it,” said a beaming Halep. “I am going to fight to the end because I really want to win this championship.”
As both Halep and Svitolina stretched every sinew running to chase down everything their opponent could throw at them in rallies that went on for more than 20 shots, fans who had settled into their $200 seats thought they were about to witness a show-stopping battle that could become an all-time classic.
Instead, it was a strange match that ultimately ended up being thin on drama.
Before Svitolina had a chance to daydream about what it would be like to become the first Ukrainian to feature in a Wimbledon singles final, she had lost the first set without holding her serve even once.
While it took Halep 20 minutes to win the first two games, the rest of the set lasted only another 23 minutes to the disappointment of not only Svitolina, but also her tennis-playing boyfriend Gael Monfils, who sat frowning in the players’ box.
The daughter of a former wrestler, Svitolina simply struggled to grapple with Halep’s solid baseline tactics and the crowd also found it hard to make much sense of what they were witnessing.
“In the beginning you want to make a statement that you are there for the fight. I didn’t take my chances. That was disappointing,” said Svitolina.
While Halep tried to play down the demolition job by suggesting “it is not like the scoreline looks, each game went long and deep,” Svitolina summed up the 27-yearold Romanian’s performance by saying: “She played unbelievable today.
“She was moving really good, striking the ball perfectly. It was a little bit me making poor decisions in some important moments, and her playing unbelievably which made the score like that.”
Reuters