Wimbledon is through 10 days of the tournament and there has been plenty of exciting action taking place already.
Venus Williams made her tenth Wimbledon semi-final today by defeating Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 7-5. It was another steady performance by Williams who has been sensational during this tournament only dropping one set in the first five matches.
The grass of Wimbledon suits Williams like no other as she is able to use her powerful serve to her advantage and limit the length of points.
At age 37, Williams continues to defy time by playing some of her best tennis after coming back while battling Sjogrens Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder which causes fatigue in addition to muscle and joint pain, which she was diagnosed with in 2011. Arguably, Willams is playing her best tennis since that diagnosis.
Williams has performed well in the grand slams this year, losing in the Australian Open final to sister, Serena before bowing out in the round of 16 in the French Open. Now Williams has made the semifinals of Wimbledon for the 10th time in her career.
In fact, the last time that Venus won a major was in 2008 when she won in Wimbledon by defeating her sister, Serena. Her last final at Wimbledon came in 2009. Improbably, Williams has battled back since the diagnosis and gotten stronger as she has aged. One other record that fell on Tuesday was Venus recording her 86th career win at Wimbledon in 100 matches which matches Serena for third-most victories at Wimbledon.
This leaves for a titanic matchup on Thursday when Williams takes on hometown favorite, Johanna Konta who defeated Simona Halep in a tense three setter. The crows at Centre Court will have to choose between Konta or Williams who is equally beloved at Wimbledon. Konta is the first British woman since Virginia Wade 39 years ago to make the semifinals of Wimbledon and trying to end a 40 year drought for British women winning Wimbledon. Konta holds the edge at 3-2 but Venus Williams might be at the peak of her game, it promises to be not miss TV on Thursday morning.
Five more thoughts on Wimbledon so far
1.) Rafael Nadal shows class and that he’s a warrior in an epic loss
Watching the first part of the match between Nadal and Gilles Muller, it seemed like it would be a runaway rout as Muller took the first two sets behind his big serve which flummoxed Nadal. But Nadal battled back like the champion he is by taking the next two sets. What followed was tennis at its best when Muller and Nadal engaged in a 2 hour and 15 minute fifth set. Neither man cracked through 27 service games, holding serve until Nadal was broken in the final game as Muller won the final set 15-13.
Throughout the deciding set, Nadal could be seen getting pumped up and showing emotion during big points whether he won them or not. One of the most fantastic things about tennis is that players get to be themselves and show their personality. This extends to the class that Nadal showed during the post match as he waited for Muller so they could walk off the court together. Say what you will about Nadal but he is classy and someone who never gives up, an absolute pleasure to watch.
2.) The wonky scheduling of Wimbledon
Not only was Novak Djokovic affected by the Nadal-Muller epic but so were the fans. It was puzzling and befuddling why the officials at Wimbledon did not move Djokovic-Adrian Mannarino was not moved to Centre Court. The match between Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov was over around 7 PM local time while the fifth set was still over an hour and a half away from being completed.
At that time it seemed logical that the officials would close the roof which would allow Djokovic and Mannarino to have the opportunity to start and complete their match as they can play until 11 PM with the roof closed before curfew. However as Djokovic answered at the post match press conference after his straight sets victory over Mannarino today, there was no good reason given. This was part of the statement given by Wimbledon officials
“The safety and security of all visitors to the Championships is of paramount importance. The preference was to play the Djokovic v Mannarino match as scheduled on No.1 Court.
“When that was no longer an option, it was determined the match could not be moved to Centre Court due to the number of spectators remaining in the grounds.”
This makes absolutely no sense as they could have opened Centre Court to the approximately 30,000 fans available and allowed them to move in between sets to watch the rest of the match. Now Djokovic must play on consecutive days as he has his quarterfinal match tomorrow against Tomas Berdych before potentially having to play the winner of Roger Federer-Milos Raonic on Friday. 3 matches in 4 days to make the final of Wimbledon is daunting and the officials at Wimbledon got this one wrong by not moving the match yesterday to Centre Court.
3.) Federer and Murray continue to roll
The other two big 4 members, Federer and Murray continue to roll through the tournament. Federer has not lost a set in this tournament after handling Dimitrov in straight sets and looks to be in prime position to win his 8th Wimbledon title and 19th grand slam overall. Federer has been serving well and still moves around the grass like nobody else in the game. Talk about a resurgence that has come out of nowhere after looking like the game had passed him by over the past couple of years.
Meanwhile, Murray has shown a few cracks in the foundation as he did struggle in the first set against Benoit Paire but pulled out a tiebreaker which led to him winning a straight set battle 7-6, 6-4, 6-4. Murray has only dropped one set but his path to the final looks a lot clearer with Nadal’s loss on Monday. The defending champion is showing that he has the fitness and defense to escape trouble and only has Sam Querry and the winner of Gilles Muller and Milan Cilic in his way of making the Wimbledon final where he’ll try to win the title for the third time in his career.
4.) Garbine Muguruza has an excellent chance to win her second grand slam title
Remember Muguruza who shocked the tennis world by overcoming Serena Williams in the 2016 French Open final in straight sets? Well she is knocking on the door of playing for the Wimbledon title on Saturday. A fantastic performance on Monday, against Angelique Kerber, prevailing in three sets, winning the last two, was followed by an easy straight set victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-3, 6-4.
The victory sets up a showdown with Magdalena Rybarikova who has come out of nowhere to make the semifinals, more on her below. If Muguruza who will be heavily favored in their semifinal match prevails, she will have an excellent chance to win Wimbledon and add that to an impressive resume that will only continue to grow as she is just 23.
5.) Miracle runs continue on the women’s side
As mentioned above, Rybarikova finds herself in the semifinals as she has knocked off two top 25 players in the first five rounds and only dropped two sets. Rybarikova dominated in her match against Coco Vandeweghe winning 6-3, 6-3. It was clear from the first ball that Rybarikova was not overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment as she rose to the occasion and never allowed Vandeweghe a chance.
Ranked 87 in the world entering the tournament, her improbable run to the semifinal continues where she’s definitely got a good chance of winning. After all, Rybarikova knocked off Karolina Pliskova, who will be ranked number one in the world after the tournament in an odd case of accumulating points, in the second round. Centre Court is not new to Rybarikova which is where she played on Pliskova in the second round, so she’ll have some familiarity when she enters the match on Thursday.
To finish off, how about Johanna Konta, who has also come out of nowhere to make a deep run during this fortnight. It seems strange to say that about the sixth ranked player in the world but Konta’s run was unexpected. Entering the tournament, Konta had only won one career match in Wimbledon which came last year before bowing out in the second round to Eugenie Bouchard.
But during this tournament, Konta has risen to the occasion winning a trio of three set matches with two of those coming in the last two rounds. The pressure is squarely on the shoulders of Konta as the hometown favorite; however, she has shown that she is ready for the moment by winning long rallies and having incredible resiliency.
Her reward for all of her efforts on Thursday is Venus Williams, the 5 time Wimbledon winner, on Centre Court in what should be the second of the two semifinals for a shot at the title. It should be an awesome match on Thursday as Konta holds a slight edge in their career head to head and one miracle run will continue to the final, the question is which one?
Standing Room Only 