By Chris Oddo | Tuesday July 10, 2018
Angelique Kerber was tested by Daria Kasatkina's creative tennis but managed to come through in straight sets.
Photo Source: Michael Steele/Getty
Wimbledon, England—Angelique Kerber has steadily improved as the year has progressed and on Tuesday at Wimbledon she proved that by defeating a rising Russian in straight sets to reach her third career Wimbledon semifinal.
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Kerber rose to the challenge of facing wildly creative Daria Kasatkina and played magnificently, particularly on the big points, and in the end she was narrowly able to escape a seesaw second set to lock up the 6-3, 7-5 victory in 89 minutes.
It wasn’t a victory for Kasatkina but her first appearance on the Centre Court at Wimbledon was a memorable one. She dipped into her bag of tricks early and often and sent Kerber on many a chase with deft drop shots and off-kilter groundstrokes.
Kasatkina played well, but her inability to hold serve in this match was her undoing as Kerber was able to convert six breaks and win 33 of 60 points against Kasatkina’s serve.
The No.11 seed opened up a 3-0 lead in the opener and even though Kasatkina broke to get back on serve with a forehand winner at the end of a 22-stroke rally to get to 3-4, Kerber broke back immediately then held to 15 to take the set.
In the second Kerber broke for 3-1 but Kasatkina kept attacking the German’s serve and eventually leveled at 3-all with another forehand winner.
A run of seven breaks in a row that featured plenty of entertaining rallies was finally ended in the 12th game when Kerber won the wildest game of them all by converting her seventh match point when her down-the-line forehand proved too hot to handle for Kasatkina.
At one point both players earned a standing ovation from the crowd when Kerber managed to win a 25-stroke rally in which Kasatkina remarkably fell and recovered to get back in the point before executing a near-perfect drop shot only to see it tracked down and handled by Kerber.
It brought the crowd to their feet as both players hunched over at mid-court and absorbed the applause before slowly walking back to the baseline. It was a brilliant game that highlighted the shotmaking flair of Kasatkina and the pitch-perfect never-say-die relentless of Kerber, who eventually channeled her experience and desire to wrestle the game and match from Kasatkina.
Kerber moves on to face Jelena Ostapenko in the semifinals. In a tournament that has seen zero Top 10 seeds reach the quarterfinals for the first time in Open Era history, Kerber (11) and Ostapenko (12) are the two highest seeds remaining.
Ostapenko defeated Dominika Cibulkova on No.1 Court on Tuesday to reach her second Grand Slam semifinal. She has never faced Kerber before.