Scare for Serena as Camila fights fire with fire
LONDON: Serena Williams stayed on track for an eighth Wimbledon title as she fought back to beat Italian Camila Giorgi 3-6 6-3 6-4 in a fiercely contested quarter-final yesterday.
For the first time in the tournament the 36-year-old was seriously challenged as unseeded Giorgi, playing in her first Grand Slam quarter-final, fought fire with fire to claim the opening set on Centre Court.
Williams responded by raising the intensity level and began striking the ball with ferocious power to break Giorgi’s serve for the first time on her way to levelling the match.
World number 52 Giorgi dropped serve to love early in the decider but hung in gamely to at least make Williams serve to reach her 35th Grand Slam semi-final and 11th at Wimbledon.
Williams stepped up to the line at 5-4 and brought up match point with an ace before completing victory when Giorgi could only push a forehand into the net.
“Every time I play Giorgi she always plays that level so I knew going in it would not be an easy match,” Williams, who will face German 13th seed Julia Goerges in the semifinals, said shortly after walking off court.
“After the first set I said ‘okay let’s go three sets’, I just kept fighting.
“I’m here just to prove that I’m back, and I feel like I’m back.”
German 13th seed Julia Goerges ended the giant-killing run of her close friend Kiki Bertens to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final with a 3-6 7-5 6-1 win.
The two often go out for dinner together when they are playing at the same tournaments but there was no room for sharing any friendly banter as both eyed a place in the last four of the most famous tennis tournament.
Dutchwoman Bertens, who had gained an appetite for eating up higher-ranked players having beaten ninth seed Venus Williams and number seven Karolina Pliskova over the past week, appeared well on her way to swallowing up another when she won the first set against Goerges.
She also recovered from 4-1 down in the second to level up proceedings but Goerges kept on believing to subdue her pal and she booked a semi-final date with Serena Williams after watching a lunging Bertens roll the ball into the net on match point.
Goerges’ win kept alive the possibility of Wimbledon staging an all-German women’s final as twice major winner Angelique Kerber takes on Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in the other semi.
Angelique Kerber moved into the last four of the tournament with a 6-3 7-5 win against Russia’s Daria Kasatkina.
Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro returned to see off Frenchman Gilles Simon and reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second time, but it was desperately hard work.
The fifth seed had led by two sets on Monday but Simon grabbed the third set before fading light ended play.
With world number one Rafael Nadal waiting for the winner, Tuesday’s fourth set, turned into a mini-epic before Del Potro eventually prevailed 7-6(1) 7-6(5) 5-7 7-6(5).
Del Potro looked flat as he was broken to trail 3-1 but he clawed his way back to lead 5-4 with his serve to come.
He looked on the brink of victory when he moved 40-15 ahead but both match points vanished, the second with a double-fault.
Simon failed to convert a break point, then a third match point for Del Potro ended with him netting a forehand.
The 33-year-old Simon saved a fourth match point when he threw the kitchen sink at a forehand return and the world number 53 eventually took his fourth break point to level at 5-5.
The next two games went with serve and the match was well into its fifth hour when the tiebreak began.
Del Potro trailed 1-3 but at 5-5 he fired down a swinging ace to reach match point number five and this time Simon cracked, netting a backhand to the relief of the Argetine who roared his approval.
Novak Djokovic beat Karen Khachanov 6-4 6-2 6-2 win to reach the last eight for a 10th time.