Serena Williams shows her power and her frailty in reaching last four
When you beat the world No 1 on Monday, you can beat the world No 10 on Tuesday. In ordinary circumstances, that is. But Serena Williams is anything but ordinary and even when Alison Riske was making her move around the grass with all the grace of a rickety old lawnmower during an afternoon of intrigue and plot twists on Centre Court, it was difficult not to feel the weight of history hanging over an absorbing all-American tussle. In fact if you listened closely enough you might have heard Williams channel Rafael Nadal and mutter: “My feeling is today I am a little bit more than Ashleigh Barty.”
Just a little. For while Riske had exceeded expectations with that shock victory over Barty in the fourth round of Wimbledon, the problem for the American underdog was that her quarter-final adversary had seen it all and won the lot several times over. It presented her with conundrum so many have run into in the past – that when it comes to judging Williams’s level at the majors, her ranking is an irrelevance compared to the champion spirit she can lean on in these contests.
Better to watch Williams closely and take it from there, then. And the conclusion from her neurotic mess of a victory over Riske is that the spells when Williams looks ready to win her 24th major on Saturday are not enough to extinguish the impression that she is still hindered by the knee injuries that have disrupted her season. Brilliant in patches and downright awful in others, there is no doubt the lingering rust makes her vulnerable against an opponent with the nerve to take advantage.
At which point enter the unlikely figure of Barbora Strycova, who upset the odds and reached her first grand slam semi-final at the age of 33 with a skilful 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory over Johanna Konta.
Naturally the temptation is to assume that the unheralded Czech’s progress merely represents another fillip for Williams. After avoiding Barty, next she meets the world No 54 for a place in the final, where her potential opponents are Simona Halep, the No 7 seed, and Elina Svitolina, the No 8 seed. The highest ranked player Williams has faced so far is Julia Goerges, the 18th seed. She beat the German easily in the third round and will probably do the same to Strycova, who has lost all three of her previous matches against Williams.
But this is women’s tennis, predictably unpredictable, and Strycova will be confident after thumping Konta. She has already beaten four seeds and is an awkward proposition with her sliced backhands, invention and liberal use of drop shots.
Indeed Riske showed how variety can unsettle Williams, who often moved like she was saving herself for the mixed doubles with Andy Murray later in the day. Danger lurked when she approached the net during the early stages. Riske kept finding ways to inconvenience the seven-time champion. Realising that Williams was having trouble stooping down, she gained the upper hand by chopping the ball low, a tactic that saw her break twice during the opening set.
Unfortunately it also succeeded in riling Williams. She raised her level when she was trailing 4-3, became more aggressive and won three games on the bounce to take the set.
By the end, however, Williams had made 27 unforced errors and Riske found herself serving for the second set after breaking with a volley. Williams helped her along with three loose shots and they were into a decider.
At the start of the third set Williams stood with her left hand on her hip as she watched Riske break for a 1-0 lead. But that was when the enormity of the occasion dawned on the outsider. That was when she remembered she is ranked 55th in the world; when she realised the match was hers to lose.
The double-fault count rose. They traded a few more breaks and Williams, bothered by her right ankle, even slipped behind the baseline at one point. Yet her ability to find her best tennis in the crucial moments remains intact. It was the difference between a good player and a superhuman champion with ferocious competitive instincts.
Halep storms into Svitolina semifinal
Such was the interest created by the teenage American Coco Gauff at Wimbledon this year that, with the exception of perhaps Serena Williams and Ash Barty, the rest of the women’s field has been able to slip quietly through the draw, virtually unnoticed. And that, it seems, is exactly the way Simona Halep likes it.
The former world No 1, who won her first grand slam title at the French Open last year, having lost in three finals, is into the semi-finals here for the second time. Trailing 4-1 to Zhang Shuai of China, who had won two of their three previous matches, she stormed back to win 7-6, 6-1.
Five years on from that first time in the last four she has dropped only one set en route and now plays the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina for a place in the final.
The Romanian will be the favourite for that match but she is taking everything in her stride these days. “The pressure is off, but it’s been [like that] since last year,” she said. “[This year’s] French Open was not a negative pressure. I felt it because, of course, I was the defending champion.
“But it was a new experience. I saw how it is to lose after you win a title. Nobody died. I just came here relaxed. I came here motivated to see how good I can be on grass. I’m happy on court. I think this helps me a lot.”
Where once she mistrusted grass, now she seems to enjoy the challenge. “Everything changed,” she said. “I have a lot of experience now. I’m more confident.
“I love grass. It’s first time when I say that. I’m relaxed. I’m happy. I’m motivated to win.”
Svitolina, the eighth seed, became the first Ukrainian woman to make the last four of a grand slam event, coming from 5-2 down in the first set and a break down in the second to beat the unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova 7-5, 6-4.
Simon Cambers