BBC coverage: TV, radio and online with up to 15 live streams.
Advertisement
The 20th seeded Venezuela born player won 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 against the world number 13 on the Centre Court, the BBC reported. She trails Sharapova 3-0 and Williams 2-1 although she did defeat the American at the French Open past year.
History is on the line: If Williams wins, she will complete her second Serena Slam, holding all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously, and arrive in New York bidding to join Margaret Court and Steffi Graf as the third woman in the Open Era to capture the calendar Grand Slam.
Agnieszka Radwanska ends a stunning rally with a huge overhead smash to win a game during her three-set loss to Garbine Muguruza at Wimbledon.
“I don’t have words to explain it”, Muguruza told BBC Sport.
“I worked all my life to achieve this moment”.
After surviving an erratic outing against Heather Watson less than a week ago, Williams has turned into a different player, raising her level against the grand-slam winning trio of older sister Venus, Victoria Azarenka and Sharapova. “She’s like one of the best players in all these years”. I’m still working on that and that’s definitely my goal. “I just get really nervous”, she said.
Muguruza had been playing in the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time after reaching the quarterfinals at the last two French Opens. Radwanska was overwhelmed, broken in the first and fifth games and again in the opening game of the second.
The 20th seed will play Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams in Saturday’s final.
“I knew that grass is much better (for) me, but after that match in Paris, I wouldn’t expect the semi-final here, that’s for sure”, Radwanska said. “I wake up with the same leg. I’m not going to change anything”.
But Muguruza then struggled and lost six games in a row at one stage, allowing the 26-year-old Radwanska to take the second set and the initiative in the decider.
But perhaps the occasion got to Muguruza. She’s actually playing very similar to Keys so I think it could be a similar match. Prior to this year, she had one win.
“I’ll be confident and ready for the match”.
She did, breaking for 4-2 thanks in part to a perfect lob. Radwanska was also pushing to break the six-footer late in the third, but Muguruza dug in and finished her off.
A drive-volley victor near the net sealed the two-hour tussle, Muguruza then dropping her racket and falling face first onto the grass.
As Muguruza tightened, Radwanska drew on her experience to start to give her opponent the runaround, winning the next four games to earn the chance to serve for the set. I’m just going to fight for each point and try to play my best.
The Hawk-Eye screen showed Muguruza’s shot had actually landed on the outer portion of the dusty baseline and even though the Spaniard’s next shot was out, the point was already hers as Radwanska had put her fate in the hands of technology.
Advertisement
“It was 50/50 call on that ball”.
