Tennis News

LONDON, Great Britain – Angelique Kerber’s win over Venus Williams in the Wimbledon semifinals presents her with an exceptionally rare opportunity – with Serena Williams awaiting her in a rematch of the Australian Open final on Saturday, she could pull off the rare feat of beating both Williams sisters at the same tournament.

Only seven players have achieved the feat before, with one of them doing it twice – full list here:

Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario
1998 Sydney
(d Serena in SFs & Venus in F)

Steffi Graf
1999 Sydney
(d Serena in 2r & Venus in QFs)

Martina Hingis
2001 Australian Open
(d Serena in QFs & Venus in SFs)

Kim Clijsters
2002 WTA Finals
(d Venus in SFs & Serena in F)

Lindsay Davenport
2004 Los Angeles
(d Venus in SFs & Serena in F)

Justine Henin
2007 US Open
(d Serena in QFs & Venus in SFs)

Kim Clijsters
2009 US Open
(d Venus in 4r & Serena in SFs)

Jelena Jankovic
2010 Rome
(d Venus in QFs & Serena in SFs)

LONDON, England – Serena Williams moved one step closer to a historic 22nd major with a straight set win over Elena Vesnina in Thursday’s Wimbledon semifinals.

Displaying no trace of the nerves that have occasionally accompanied her quest to match Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 Grand Slam titles, Williams ruthlessly closed out a 6-2, 6-0 victory in just 48 minutes.

A rapid start saw the top seed race into a 3-0 lead with only nine minutes on the Centre Court clock. Venina, playing at this stage of a Grand Slam for the first time, did eventually get on the board, but it was merely delaying the inevitable, Williams firing an ace down the T to close out the set in emphatic fashion.

Williams tightened her grip on the contest at the start of the second, wrong-footing her dumbfounded opponent to earn two more break points. Only one was required, Vesnina wilting following another taxing baseline exchange.

And as the finishing line approached there was no let up for Williams, who found an answer to every question posed by the Russian, completing a victory with another flawless service game.

Serena Williams is posting some absolutely absurd stats today. On fire. #Wimbledon https://t.co/12pMcCtzcf pic.twitter.com/Fm4HEyWYec

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) 7 July 2016

“I’m very happy, you know, I was really focused today because we’ve had a lot of tough matches before. And especially on this surface I knew she could really bring it to me so I was ready,” Williams told the BBC afterwards. “It’s never easy out there, every point you have to fight for.

In the final she will face either sister Venus Williams or her conqueror at this year’s Australian Open, Angelique Kerber.

“It’s weird I can’t believe I’m in the final again. You know I’m 0 for 2 [in Grand Slam finals] this year so I’m determined to get at least one. It would be great [to play Venus] because then we’d be guaranteed to have a Williams on the trophy – that’s the ultimate goal for both of us and obviously I want her to do well, and if not Kerber would be another good match. I played her in Australia. Either way I look forward to it.”

More to follow.

LONDON, Great Britain – With the final four Wimbledon contenders set to take “Centre” stage on Thursday, WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen will deliver play-by-play action live on wtatennis.com.

Will Venus Williams meet sister Serena for the first all-Williams Grand Slam final since the 2009 Championships? Will we see a rematch of the Australian Open championship match between world No.1 Serena Williams reignite her quest for a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title against Melbourne conqueror Angelique Kerber? Or will Elena Vesnina, who began the year ranked outside the Top 100, spark the shock of the century on the lawns of the All England Club by reaching her first major final?

Stay tuned for all the action and Insider insight right here on the Insider Live Blog:

LONDON, Great Britain – WTA CEO Steve Simon joins the WTA Insider podcast after a busy week of meetings in London to discuss the future of the tour and the changes coming down the pipeline. In particular, Simon breaks down the current discussion surrounding a possible change in the tour’s current circuit structure, the future state of the WTA’s broadcast and content business, and his vision for a tour that continues to push forward and grow to become a worldwide sporting power.

On his vision for the circuit structure:

“What I would like to see is a tour that provides clarity, which I’m not sure we have today. I’m not sure a lot of our fans know the difference between an International series event and a Premier series event. I would like to have a system where every event has a purpose and a meaning. Then we can begin to storytell from it and take our fans on tour for a year and understand why this event is happening and the relevance of it, and the relevance of the athletes, as opposed to being a faceless event, which I’m afraid happens too often.”

On the current state of the WTA broadcast business:

“I think it’s an exciting time because in 2017 we are embarking on a new broadcast agreement. The basis for this agreement is that we will now be producing every main draw singles match played, and every semifinal and doubles final played. So we’re going to go from producing approximately 800 matches a year to over 2,000, which is a significant jump. Through our partnership with Perform we will now have a global audience going into 2017 at record levels that we have never seen before. We’ll be entering the market at nearly 400 million people in our audience universe right away.”

On his desire to expand the tour’s competitive landscape:

“We’re very proud that we’re the No.1 professional women’s league and I think it’s well deserved. You don’t become No.1 because you didn’t produce and you should take a lot of pride in that. The next step from that from my perspective is we want to not just be the No.1 women’s professional tour, we want to compete with professional sports. What that means is that we’re now drawing the audience levels that are similar to other professional sports, and we need to grow our audience levels. They’re not at the levels that I want them to be at.”

On the state of play:

“We are in a transition now. We have Serena in the argument as one of the best players to ever play this game and other great champions that are with us. But when I look at what’s coming I’m just very excited about it. We can see the transition happening. We can see it in the results. Every week this year we’ve seen a lot of upsets. Well those upsets are consistently this new era coming through and challenging the existing stars and that’s very healthy.”

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LONDON, England – Tuesday afternoon at the All England Club saw the WTA’s finest take center stage. The on-court entertainment did not disappoint, and neither did the press conferences afterwards.

Serena Williams downplays her peerless serve…
“My serve is usually really good. I don’t know how it came about, though. Like, I’m not as tall as all the other players. So it’s strange that I have such a strong, hard serve.

“But I have to say what I think really is my game is my mental toughness because just not only to be able to play, to win, but to be able to come back when I’m down. Both on the court and after tough losses, just to continue to come back and continue to fight, it’s something that takes a lot of tenacity.”

Elena Vesnina on hatching a plan to topple the World No.1…
“First of all, you need to be consistent with Serena. You don’t need to give her a lot of free points. You have to be very, very strong mentally, and, as I said, put pressure on her on the baseline, to show her you can actually beat her.

“I was watching her final against Angelique in Australian Open on the court. It was great atmosphere over there. I saw how Angelique, she was sticking into her game from the first till the last. She was not giving up. Yeah, maybe Serena didn’t play her best tennis, and that was the key, and Angelique used her chances on that moment. Maybe that’s going to be the key for me as well.”

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reflects on her first quarterfinal at Wimbledon…
“I’ve always been saying that I’ve never liked grass and I’ve always been quite negative in terms of grass and playing at Wimbledon. But I think right now I’ll change my mind!”

Venus Williams on her journey back to a Grand Slam semifinal…
“The road was six years. They go by fast, thankfully. But I’ve been blessed. Been really blessed to have an opportunity to be here, had an opportunity in the past to do this. And I don’t have any regrets about anything that has taken place in between. It’s been a journey, but it’s something I’ve had to do and it’s made me stronger.

“The good part is I’ve always felt like I had the game. So this is always a plus when you know you have the game. So you just have to keep working until things fall into place. It’s never a given, everyone plays well. I mean today, she played so well and there were so many times where we were just dead even it felt like. It’s never a given. She could have easily won that match as well. So just grateful.”

Angelique Kerber on her recreating her Melbourne magic…
“When I arrived in Paris, I was feeling much more pressure. I did it actually by myself, to put a lot of pressure on me. Also, I was not handling all the off court things so well. It was too much of everything, I think.

“When I arrived here, I was telling myself, just like in Australia, Just be relaxed, playing round by round, not making things actually too much complicated, not putting pressure on myself.
So that was actually what I changed, what I learn also from Paris. Just being also focusing on the tennis thing, on my practice, being more relaxed.”

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).