LONDON—Serena Williams stamped her authority on her Semi-final match against Maria Sharapova on Thursday July 9 to move into her 6th Wimbledon Ladies Singles Final, winning in two straight sets 6/2, 6/4. Sharapova had no effective answer for Williams power and accuracy.
Williams’ serving was awesome regularly sending down first serves of around 120mph and hitting hard accurate ground stroke difficult for Sharapova to reach. Williams’ service games were a procession of points in her favour, winning 86 percent of her first serves that hit the mark (25 from 29) and her success on her second serves was an impressive 57 percent. Although Sharapova’s put more of her first serves in play her success rate was lower at 69 percent and very low at 29 percent on her 2nd serves. Williams’ ground strokes were also more penetrating and consistent, she made a total of 29 winners compared to 9 for Sharapova.
In the other Semi-final between Agnieszka Radwanska and Garbine Muguruza, Muguruza got off to a great start streaming away and taking the first set 6/2. Radwanska regrouped and settled at the start of the second set edging ahead in the first few games and then dominated the rest of the set to win it 6/3.
Radwanska broke Muguruza’s serve at the start of the 3rd set but Muguruza broke back immediately to level at 1/1 and then won her serve to edge into a 2/1 lead. All progressed evenly until in the 6th game of the set with the score at 3/2 Muuruza broke through to push ahead 4/2 and consolidated by winning her next service game to make the score 5/2. Radwanska was under a lot of pressure in her next service game but pulled through to make the score 5/3. Radwanska tried hard to recover the situation taking an Advantage point in game 9, but Muguruza got the points she needed to take the set and the match 6/2, 3/6, 6/3.
This has been a fairy tale run for Muguruza and one would like to think that it will be a well contested final against Williams, but the reality could be different. Admittedly, Muguruza’s 1st service points won was high at 41 from 52 in play (79 percent) and her winner numbers were also excellent at 39, and she hit many good penetrating forehands but she made a lot of unforced errors (23). The difference is likely to be the added power of Williams’ serves and her fearsome ground strokes.
The Ladies Final takes place on Saturday July 11.
Gentlemen’s singles
The Semi-finals of the Gentlemen’s singles take place today, Friday July 10 with the big match between Andy Murray and Roger Federer. In the other match Navak Djokovic plays underdog Richard Gasquet.
