Keys falls
Boca Raton’s Madison Keys lost 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
LONDON — Even as Serena Williams piled up aces and groundstroke winners from all angles, even as she stormed through seven games in a row and 10 of the last 13 in yet another comeback, her Wimbledon quarterfinal against Victoria Azarenka never felt like a runaway.
That’s because Azarenka, a two-time major champion and former No. 1, was playing spectacular tennis too, nearly the equal of Williams in every facet. Nearly. When Williams finds her best game, she becomes unbeatable. And in her last 26 Grand Slam matches, she is, indeed, unbeaten. Erasing an early deficit at Centre Court, Williams got past Azarenka 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 Tuesday with the help of 17 aces, 46 winners and only 12 unforced errors.
“It’s been up and down, up and down, but somehow I’m still alive. I don’t know how,” said Williams, who twice was two points from losing to Heather Watson in the third round.
She is closing in on a fourth consecutive major title, which she already accomplished in 2002-03, and also would have the third leg of a calendar-year Grand Slam, last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1988.
In Thursday’s semifinals, No. 1 Williams faces No. 4 Maria Sharapova, who beat American CoCo Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-2. Williams is 17-2 against Sharapova with 16 straight victories. But one of Sharapova’s wins came in the 2004 Wimbledon final, in which at 17 she stunned Williams for the first of her five Grand Slam titles.
“Definitely no secrets between each other’s games,” Sharapova said.
The other semifinal pits No. 13 Agnieszka Radwanska against No. 20 Garbine Muguruza. Radwanska, the 2012 runner-up, eliminated American Madison Keys 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3. Muguruza reached her first major semifinal by defeating Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-3.
The men’s quarterfinals are Wednesday, and No. 1 Novak Djokovic became the last to advance when he completed a dramatic 6-7 (6), 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Kevin Anderson that had been suspended because of darkness after four sets Monday.