Wimbledon Thursday: The Final Four
Serena and Venus Williams will bid to set up a fifth Williams sisters Wimbledon final on Thursday at SW19. Can Angelique Kerber and Elena Vesnina stop them? We preview both semifinals here at WTATennis.com, courtesy of contributor Chris Oddo.
Thursday
Semifinals
[1] Serena Williams (USA #1) vs. Elena Vesnina (RUS #50)
Head-to-head: Williams leads, 4-0
Key Stat: Williams is 27-4 in Grand Slam semifinals.
Serena Williams’ march to 22 majors is running at full throttle at the All England Club. The American legend is now just two matches from matching Steffi Graf’s record for Open Era Grand Slam titles after knocking off Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the last two rounds. On Thursday the 34-year-old American will aim to make it a Russian trifecta when she takes on Elena Vesnina, the lowest-ranked and only unseeded player remaining in the draw. Surprised to see Vesnina make it this far at a major? So is she. “I am. I am very surprised,” she said after defeating Dominika Cibulkova to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal on Tuesday. “It was like a dream came true.” To avoid having her dream morph into a nightmare against the game’s premier power player, Vesnina says she’ll have to use any and every opportunity she gets. “You have to use your chances against Serena,” she said. “If she’s giving you chances, you need to be there.”
Williams has given her opponents a few too many chances in the latter stages of the last three majors, losing in the semifinals at the US Open last year, and in the finals of this year’s Australian and French Opens. But there is a different air about her on the Wimbledon grass. She leads all active players in wins and titles at SW19 and something about Centre Court just seems to bring out the spice in her legendary serve. Williams knows that Vesnina, a two-time Grand Slam doubles champion, is an accomplished player with an all-court game, but the American says she’ll take confidence from having won all four of their previous meetings. “I know her game really, really well,” Williams told reporters on Tuesday after reaching the semifinals “It’s good to play someone’s game that you know. I’ll be ready for it.”
Pick: Williams in two
[4] Angelique Kerber (GER #4) vs. [8] Venus Williams (USA #8)
Head-to-head: Kerber leads, 3-2
Key Stat: Venus Williams owns a 14-5 record in Grand Slam semifinals but has not played one since 2010.
Venus Williams has turned back the clock in a big way this Wimbledon fortnight. The five-time champion has been tested often, both by her opponents and the rain, and has come through with flying colors to reach the last four at a major for the first time since the 2010 US Open. Williams says the key to her success has been belief. “The good part is I always felt like I had the game,” she told the press after defeating Yaroslava Shvedova in the quarterfinals on Day 8. “This is always a plus, when you know you have the game. So you just have to keep working until things fall into place.”
The 36-year-old hopes that the dominoes of fate continue to fall in her favor on Thursday when she faces Angelique Kerber for the sixth time. The German endured a lull after winning this year’s Australian Open, but she has rediscovered the magic that brought her a maiden major title here at Wimbledon, reaching the semifinals without the loss of a set. “I’m feeling really good,” an enthusiastic Kerber said after pushing past Simona Halep in a wildly entertaining quarterfinal on Centre Court. “I’m playing really good tennis right now. I think I’m playing like in Australia, like really high‑class tennis.” Is Kerber playing well enough to end the magical run of a Wimbledon legend, or will Venus Williams reach a Grand Slam final for the first time in seven years?
Pick: Kerber in three
By the Numbers:
11 – Number of times that Venus and Serena have advanced to the semifinals of the same Grand Slam.
5 – Venus Williams can move to No.5 in the world if she wins the Wimbledon title.
18 – Elena Vesnina will crack the Top 20 for the first time if she reaches the final, coming in at a projected ranking of 18. She was ranked as low as 122 this February.
3 – Number of players to have reached a Grand Slam semifinal aged 36 or older (Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Venus Williams).