Former champion Maria Sharapova is back in the semifinals at Wimbledon for the first time in four years after a three-set battle against an American making her Grand Slam breakthrough. Sharapova will next face Serena Williams on Thursday in the semifinals. Williams beat Sharapova in this year’s Australian Open final.
The fourth-seeded Sharapova was pushed hard on Centre Court by 47th-ranked CoCo Vandeweghe but lifted her game in the third set to win 6-3, 5-7 (3), 6-2 and advance to her 20th Grand Slam semifinal.
It took 2 hours, 46 minutes for Sharapova to subue Vandweghe, who had never previously progressed past the third round at a major but made the most of her appearance on the biggest stage in the game. The 23-year-old American repeatedly waved her arms to rouse the crowd.
Sharapova served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but couldn’t close it out. When Vandeweghe won four straight points to take the second-set tiebreaker, it was the first time that Sharapova had dropped a set all tournament.
The Russian buckled down and went up 3-0 in the third set. When Vandweghe broke to close to 3-2, she again motioned to the crowd to get behind her. But Sharapova shut down the comeback, winning the final three games.
“I was pretty dominant in the first and the beginning of the second set and things slipped away a little bit for me in that second set tiebreaker, serving for the match,” Sharapova said.
The All England Club is where Sharapova won her first Grand Slam — and only Wimbledon title so far — in 2004 at the age of 17. But this will be her first trip back to the semifinals since 2011, when she lost in the final to Petra Kvitova.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been at that stage so I’m really happy with every match that I’ve competed out here and been able to win some in two sets, and today in three,” Sharapova said. “I’m just through so that gives me a lot of confidence.”
Serena in semis
Serena’s latest Grand Slam match against Victoria Azarenka ended the same way as the previous nine — with Williams walking off as the winner.
The top-ranked Williams fought back from a set down Tuesday to beat Azarenka 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the Wimbledon semifinals and keep her bid alive for a fourth straight major title.
Coming up with big serves when she needed them and getting stronger as the match wore on, Williams put on a dominant performance in the final two sets, winning seven straight games at one stretch, to run her Grand Slam winning streak to 26 matches.
Williams served 17 aces, including three in the final game, to extend her career record against Azarenka to 17-3 - including 10-0 in Grand Slam play.
It’s the first time Williams has reached the Wimbledon semifinals since 2012, when she won the last of her five titles at the All England Club.
Williams’ next opponent will be 2004 champion Maria Sharapova, who beat unseeded American CoCo Vandeweghe in three sets. Williams holds a career 17-2 advantage against the Russian.
Williams is two wins away from winning her fourth consecutive Grand Slam tournament, which would match the “Serena Slam” she last achieved in 2002-03. A victory in the U.S. Open would then remain to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam, which hasn’t been accomplished since Steffi Graf in 1988.
Advancing to the semifinals in the bottom half of the draw was 20th-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain, who beat Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-5, 6-3 on Court 1. It will be the first Grand Slam semifinal for the 21-year-old Muguruza, who reached the quarterfinals at the last two French Opens.
Agnieszka Radwanska is also back in the Wimbledon semifinals for the third time in four years.
The 13th-seeded Pole, who lost in the 2012 final, beat Madison Keys of the United States 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 Tuesday in the quarterfinals. Radwanska will face No. 20 Muguruza in the semifinals on Thursday.
Paes-Hingis in mixed QFs
leander Paes and Martina Hingis breezed into the mixed doubles quarterfinals after drubbing Artem Sitak and Anastasia Rodionova in straight sets. The seventh seeded pair needed only 48 minutes to thrash the Kiwi-Australian team 6-2 6-2 in the third round.
Paes and Hingis are the first team to seal a last-eight berth in the mixed doubles. The duo did not face a single break point in the match.
later in the day, Sania Mirza will look to seal a quarterfinal berth in the mixed doubles with her Brazilian partner Bruno Soares. They face Croatian pair of Marin Draganja and Ana Konjuh.
Djoker holds nerves to ward off Anderson challenge
Novak Djokovic survived a one-set shootout with big-serving Kevin Anderson on Tuesday to advance to the quarterfinals and keep up his bid for a third Wimbledon title.
The top-ranked Djokovic beat the 14th-seeded South African 7-5 in the fifth set on Court 1 to complete a match that had been suspended by darkness at two sets apiece.
It took 45 minutes of play on Tuesday for Djokovic to advance to his 25th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 6-7 (6), 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 victory. He will next face Croatia’s Marin Cilic, a player he has beaten in all 12 of their previous matches.
“I was two sets down. To come back and win in five gives me great satisfaction and confidence for the next challenge,” Djokovic said. “It was frustrating at times, especially today, but I managed to go through, and that’s what matters.”