Vesnina ensures Cibulkova will get to church on time
Slovak star doesn’t have to worry about putting off her wedding for date in the Wimbledon semifinals
WIMBLEDON— Serena on top, Venus on the bottom. And if the twain shall not meet in a Wimbledon final, it will be down to a German woman with precisely one Grand Slam title to her name and a Russian woman ranked 50th in the world.
Between the two of them, Serena and Venus Williams own 11 Wimbledon singles championships. Where would you place your money?
Angelique Kerber dropped her serve six times seeing off fifthseeded Simona Halep on Tuesday in an arm wrestling contest betwixt feeble and feebler on the serving line. But the 28-year- old hasn’t dropped a set yet at the All England Club.
Meanwhile, Elena Vesnina ensured that her opponent, Dominika Cibulkova, will be getting to the church on time for her Saturday wedding in Bratislava. No centre court conflict of interest after all for the bride, who’d vowed to defer the poorly timed nuptials had she prevailed in the quarter-finals. A 6-2, 6-2 clobbering by Vesnina put the I do’s back on schedule.
Cibulkova, who triumphed at Eastbourne just a few weeks ago, was clearly spent physically and emotionally from her dramatic round of 16 win the day before over third seed Agnieszka Rad- wanska.
“It was really tough, really hard on the court for me today,” the Slovak admitted. She had tried her best to recover from exhaustion and swirling demands: two ice baths the night before, physiotherapy at the house rented with her fiancé, sleeping in before the match. To no avail as Vesnina bent her at will.
“It was just a great two weeks for me. If you tell me before the tournament, I win Eastbourne and I will go in the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon, I wouldn’t take you very seriously.’’
While the disappointment was fresh, Cibulkova was already turning her mind to her other love match. “I will just look forward to the wedding because everything is ready. What I do, I do 100 per cent. I will get married hundred per cent, not thinking about tennis.”
Let Vesnina go ahead and worry about confronting Serena in her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal.
Surprised to find yourself in the gaudy rounds of Wimbledon, Elena?
“I was waiting for this question,” she said. “I am. I am very surprised. It was like a dream came true. I’m always thinking, like, I can do well in the Grand Slams. I was close to be in the quarter-final a couple of times, but it was not good enough. I was just waiting and waiting for this to happen.”
A feisty competitor — her primary asset on the slick lawns here — the 29-year-old Vesnina is a decorated doubles player, third in the world at one point, though her singles rank- ing last year crashed through the 100-mark.
“I think nothing can be better than playing against Serena in semifinal on centre court at Wimbledon,” she said. Except toppling the world No. 1, as long a shot as that may seem.
The younger Williams powered through a confident dismantling of Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, playing in her first Wimbledon quarters, 6-4, 6-4. “I’m excited to have been able to win that one and get through,” Serena said. “One thing I’ve learned this year is just to focus on the match.”
Serena may have locked down that No. 1 in the world thing — 177 successive weeks ensconced in that po- sition — but she hasn’t won a major since last year’s U.S. Open.
Venus, after dispatching Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, 7-6, 6-2, will have her hands full with Kerber, who denied Serena that Australian laurels in January. Kerber, the fourth seed, dispatched Halep 7-5, 7-6, and faces the prospect of potentially having to oust back-to-back Williamses for Wimbledon laurels.
“First it’s Venus,” the lefty reminded reporters trying to lure her into getting ahead of herself. “She has a lot of confidence right now.’’
But so does Kerber. “I know that I have the game to win the big tournament. I know that I know how to do it right now.”