Message received, Serena wins
HOWARD FENDRICH
WIMBLEDON, England – Thanks to a bit of advice from her big sister and a bunch of aces from her big serve, Serena Williams is back in the Wimbledon semifinals.
With two more victories, Williams will be holding a Grand Slam trophy for the first time in two years.
The thud of racket-against-ball reverberating under the closed Centre Court roof, Williams smacked 13 aces at up to 120 mph and overpowered defending champion Petra Kvitova, 6-3, 7-5, in the quarterfinals Tuesday at the All England Club.
Beforehand, Williams’ father and coach, Richard, asked his other title-winning daughter to relay some suggestions.
“I went and had Venus talk to her because Venus can get (through) to Serena better than anyone in the world. So I told Venus, ‘I’m not going to talk to her. You talk to her.’ So Venus went and talked to her. When the match was over, I told her, ‘Venus: Good coaching! Good coaching!’ ” Dad said after snapping photos of Serena’s victory from his front-row perch in the guest box above a scoreboard.
“I wanted Serena to move her feet a little bit more and to not concentrate on what the girl’s doing, but concentrate exactly on what she wished to do,” he continued. “And that was the only message.”
The 30-year-old Serena, bidding to become the first woman at least that age to win a major since Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 1990 at age 33, turned in her best performance of the tournament against her most difficult opponent. After being stretched to 9-7 and 7-5 third sets against less-accomplished women in the two previous rounds, the No. 6-seeded Williams was on top of things against No. 4 Kvitova.
“You can’t play a defending Wimbledon champion or Grand Slam champion and not elevate your game,” said Williams, who produced 27 winners and 10 unforced errors. “I had to weed out the riffraff and just get serious.”
Kvitova won 16 of her previous 17 matches at Wimbledon, including 11 in a row since a loss to Williams in the 2010 semifinals. Two days later, Williams went on to win the title — her fourth at Wimbledon, her 13th at a Grand Slam tournament and her most recent to date.
On Thursday, Williams will play No. 2 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, the reigning Australian Open champion, who defeated unseeded Tamira Paszek, 6-3, 7-6 (4), to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the second consecutive year. The other semifinal will be No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland against No. 8 Angelique Kerber of Germany.
Radwanska was a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 winner over No. 17 Maria Kirilenko; Kerber a 6-3, 6-7 (7), 7-5 winner over No. 15 Sabine Lisicki.
The last two U.S. men were beaten in the fourth round: 10th-seeded Mardy Fish wasted the one-set lead he built before play was suspended Monday and lost to No. 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4, and 126th-ranked qualifier Brian Baker’s run ended against No. 27 Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3.
No. 4 Andy Murray eliminated No. 16 Marin Cilic, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3, to prolong Britain’s hopes for its first male champion at Wimbledon since 1936.
