Serena storms back
Serena Williams’ latest Grand Slam match against Victoria Azarenka ended the same way as the previous nine — with Williams walking off as the winner.
The top-ranked Williams fought back from a set down Tuesday to beat Azarenka, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, on Centre Court to reach the Wimbledon semifinals and keep her bid alive for a fourth straight major title.
Coming up with big serves when she needed them and getting stronger as the match wore on, Williams put on a dominant performance in the final two sets, winning seven straight games at one stretch.
Williams hit 17 aces, including three in each of her final two service games, to extend her career record against Azarenka to 17-3 — including 10-0 in Grand Slam play.
“We just saw today why Serena is No. 1,” said Azarenka, a former No. 1 herself and two-time Australian Open champion. “I haven’t seen her play like this, honestly, even the last matches before that.”
Williams’ next opponent will be Maria Sharapova, who beat unseeded American CoCo Vandeweghe in three sets. Williams holds a career 17-2 advantage against the Russian, including 16 wins in a row.
Williams lost to Sharapova in the 2004 Wimbledon final, when the Russian won her first Grand Slam title at the age of 17. The last time they met at Wimbledon, Williams won in straight sets in the fourth round in 2010.
“We haven’t played each other at Wimbledon in a while but I look forward to it,” Williams said. “I just really don’t have anything to lose.”
Sharapova looked ahead to another late-round showdown with Williams. “Definitely no secrets be- tween each other’s games.”
The other women’s semifinal will be between 2012 runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and No. 20 Garbine Muguruza of Spain.
Defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, survived a one-set shootout with big-serving Kevin Anderson to advance to the quarter-finals and keep up his bid for a third Wimbledon title.
After the match had been suspended by darkness at two sets apiece, it took 45 minutes of play Tuesday for Djokovic to advance to his 25th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final with a 6-7 (6), 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 victory.
Djokovic struggled throughout the match in trying to tame the 6foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson’s huge serve, but broke him to go up 6-5 in the fifth set to set up his victory. Anderson finished with 40 aces.