Eds: Updates with Sharapova quote, corrects to 27 matches in 3rd paragraph. The pounding baseline groundstrokes that had seen off all her rivals with the loss of only one set in her previous five matches were suddenly coming back with interest and Sharapova seemed unable, or unwilling, to change the pattern. The victory leaves Williams one win short of another career milestone: If she wins Wimbledon, she’ll hold all four Grand Slam titles at once for the second time in her career.
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Sharapova is in her fifth Wimbledon semi-final and her first since 2011. “That’s pretty good. That’s pretty good”.
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. While Serena Williams is being expected to beat Maria Sharapova, but writing her off will be the biggest folly that you can make at your own peril.
Sharapova responded in kind by questioning Williams’ coupling-up with coach Patrick Mouratoglou, saying: “If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce and has kids”. The last time the Russian managed to get the better of her American foe was as a formative 17-year-old at the Wimbledon final in 2004 and at the end-of-season WTA Championships.
The 21-year-old Muguruza lost six games in a row in one stretch but regrouped to defeat Radwanska 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on Thursday, becoming the first Spanish woman to advance to the Wimbledon final since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1996. Serena said: “‘I made it a point to reach out to Maria, because she was inadvertently brought into the situation by assumptions made by the reporter.’ A year later she called Maria’s outfit ‘supercute” on Twitter.
“Sometimes as much as you don’t want it or as bad timing as it could be, I don’t want to lose to anyone at a grand slam”.
“I never found myself in a position to break her today”. “I know that that’s what keeps me going forward”.
Then again, Muguruza has already knocked Williams out of a major once before, doing so in the second round at the 2014 French Open.
For now, however, the Grand Slam dream lives on for Williams, who kept applying pressure on Sharpova with deep, hard serves and groundies.
Together Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have earned more than $100 million in prize money, with the glamorous duo boosting those lofty totals through endorsements – especially the latter, who is habitually named the world’s richest female athlete.
William now faces 20th seed Muguruza, who overcame Agnieszka Radwanska to reach her first grand slam final and beat the American at last year’s French Open.
“The feeling gets better every time I’m here”.
Whether or not Muguruza’s parents will come to watch is still not certain. “You have to be able not to just produce your best tennis, but more”. “Obviously it hasn’t happened for me”. To open the match Sharapova served three double faults and was broken, with her opponent having to do very little.
But take a look at the breakdown of that head-to-head, and the second definition would suggest Williams and Sharapova share anything but a rivalry.
Williams fired two aces and an unreturned serve to complete her victory, leaving Sharapova simply trailing in her wake.
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The break was immediately returned in kind, halting Radwanska’s winning run of six consecutive games from 3-1 in the second set.
