Serena Bounces Defending Champ Kvitova from Wimbledon Draw

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Serena Bounces Defending Champ Kvitova from Wimbledon Draw

By Chris Oddo

Photo Credit: Clive Brunskill/ Getty

(July 3, 2012)—Serena Williams advanced to her eighth Wimbledon semifinal today with another authoritative serving display against Petra Kvitova, 6-3, 7-5.

But it wasn’t just the serve that was working for the 13-time Grand Slam champion.

Everything was.

“She’s been playing so well on grass,” said Williams of Kvitova, who hadn‘t lost at Wimbledon since bowing out to Williams in the 2010 final. “So it was tough.”

It didn’t appear so tough.

Serving under Wimbledon’s Centre Court roof with pinpoint accuracy, Williams rained down 13 aces and knocked back the only break point she faced against the defending Wimbledon champion.

The four-time Wimbledon champion won 31 of 36 first serve points against Kvitova, and hammered 27 winners to only 10 unforced errors.

As far as title aspirations, Williams isn’t quite ready to anoint herself a five-time Wimbledon champion yet. “It’s definitely something that I’ve thought about it,” she said afterwards. “I’m just happy to still be in it. It’s a dream come true for me.”

After Williams broke to lead 4-2 in the first set, there wasn’t much Kvitova could do to get back on serve. Williams feathered a delicate drop shot on game point to go up 5-2, and then managed to get through a rough spot in the ninth game, taking the final two points from 30-all, to secure the first set in 30 minutes.

Brilliant serving from each player dominated the second set, but it was Kvitova who lost her nerve--and serve--in the 11th game. Just after Williams closed the door on a set point opportunity in the 10th game with a service winner down the middle, she ramped up the pressure against the Kvitova serve.

With the Czech facing a break point after missing a backhand into the net at 30-all, she looked to have averted the crisis when Williams’s feeble mishit return of her scorching serve dropped harmlessly inside the service line.

But Kvitova flubbed her chance for an easy winner by dropping a forehand into the net for an anticlimactic break.

With Williams taking the ball to serve out the match at 6-5, and Kvitova still smarting from her crucial mistake, it seemed all but academic.

Kvitova did manage to get to 30-all in that final game, but Williams’s 13th ace brought her to match point, which she sealed with a service winner out wide that glanced off Kvitova’s racquet and high into the air, dropping harmlessly out of play near the umpire's chair..

It was a convincing display of breathtaking power and poise for Serena, who hasn’t showed this type of form since she last won Wimbledon in 2010.

Kerber, After a Torturous Affair, Defeats Lisicki

It was shaping up to be an easy affair on Centre Court. Sabine Lisicki, apparently not quite ready to back up her command performance against Maria Sharapova with another win in the quarterfinals, was spraying errors all over the court. Angelique Kerber, hungry and focused, had taken the first set, and was leading 3-0 against Lisicki in the second set.

Apparently, the romp was on.

Then, suddenly, Lisicki awoke from her slumber, and rallied to pull even at 3-3.

What proceeded to follow is difficult to describe.

"What just happened?" said Darren Cahill in the ESPN booth shortly after the match.

After a long, harrowing second set that saw Lisicki wiggle her way out of three match points against, the pair of Germans marched into a third set.

Kerber, obviously rattled, seemed to be losing her cool at times, but just when all seemed to be lost, with Lisicki leading 5-3 and taking the balls to serve for a spot in the semifinals, the 8th-seeded German rallied to take the last four games on the trot.

No doubt this will be considered an opportunity lost for Lisicki. She basically did everything right to take the wind out of her opponent's sails, but just at the moment of truth, she failed to put the final dagger in.

One poor service game later, and the momentum had shifted decisively for the final time in this match.

"She saved the match points, but she played very well in these moments," said Kerber afterwards.

"It was also mentally not easy," she added.

When it was all said and done, Kerber had a 6-3, 6-7(9), 7-5 victory, and her second semifinalist appearance in her last four Grand Slams.

For Lisicki, nothing but regret. She fought valiantly to give herself a chance to win, and yet, just when the match was decidedly hers, she handed it right back to Kerber.

Radwanska Edges Kirilenko and Azarenka Downs Paszek

Agnieska Radwanska and Victoria Azarenka kept their hopes for claiming the No. 1 ranking during Wimbledon alive, as each reached the semifnals today.

Azarenka was first to go through, as she ended Tamira Paszek's campaign with a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory that was relatively uncomplicated until the latter portions of the second set.

After each held serve in their first four service games of the set, the players then exchanged four breaks of serve from 4-4 before Azarenka calmed her nerves to secure her second consecutive Wimbledon semifinal appearance in the breaker.

Radwanska finally broke through to a Grand Slam semifnal when she outlasted Maria Kirilenko, 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in a match that was delayed four times due to rain. The match started at 2:28 local time on Court 1 and was eventually finished late in the evening under the Centre Court roof.

Radwanska will face Angelique Kerber in the semifinals, while Azarenka will face Serena Williams.