Kerber denies all-Williams final
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GERMANY’S Angelique Kerber gatecrashed the Williams sisters’ Wimbledon party when she overpowered Venus 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals yesterday, setting up a mouth-watering final showdown with Serena.
The fourth seed will be aiming to become the first German woman since Steffi Graf 20 years ago to lift the Wimbledon singles crown, and to confound Serena’s efforts to equal Graf’s professional era record of 22 grand slam singles titles for the second time this year.
Left-handed Kerber had the upper hand in the baseline exchanges against eighth-seeded Venus throughout a topsy-turvy first set in which there were seven breaks of serve, moving her American opponent from side to side with fearsome drives off both wings.
An increasingly weary looking Williams, 36, wilted under the pressure and made a string of errors, surrendering the set by burying a forehand into the net.
The German retained her edge in the second set and weathered a clutch of Williams winners before closing out the match with a cross-court forehand.
The 28-year-old will aim to complete the double against Serena tomorrow, having beaten the world No. 1 in the Australian Open final in January to lift her first grand slam title.
Earlier, a Champagne cork popped somewhere on Centre Court four games into Serena’s semifinal and while it was a tad premature, her 6-2, 6-0 thrashing of Elena Vesnina suggested she could be celebrating something special tomorrow.
The top-seeded American will be taking nothing for granted, having seen her bid to match Graf’s modern era record of grand slam titles stuck one short on 21 for a year, but it was a menacing show of strength, albeit against an overawed opponent.
She dropped only three points on serve in an embarrassingly one-sided 49 minutes — crunching down one 160 kph delivery that topped the women’s speed charts at this year’s tournament.
From the moment the 34-year-old nonchalantly broke serve in the opening game the writing was on the wall for a leaden-footed Vesnina appearing in her first grand slam semifinal.
By the time the latecomers took their seats two games later Serena was 3-0 ahead and her place in a ninth Wimbledon final already looked in the bag.
The Russian held serve twice in the opening set, prompting sympathetic applause, but the world No. 50 was swept aside in the second set, winning only five points, as Serena marched to singles victory No. 85 at the All England Club.
“It’s weird, I can’t believe I’m in the finals again,” the six-time champion said. “I’m zero and two for (grand slam finals) this year so I want to get at least one.”
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