With Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe also winning Monday, it’s the first time three American women have reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals since Serena, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati did it in 2004.
Advertisement
The fourth-seeded Sharapova was pushed hard on Centre Court by 47th-ranked Coco Vandeweghebut lifted her gamein the third set to win 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-2 and advance to her 20th Grand Slam semifinal. She led Williams in last month’s French Open before the top seed rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory. SlamTracker’s Keys to the Match inform us that when she has won more than 35 per cent of her first-serve return points Maria has gone on to win an impressive 83 per cent of sets played.
“What I felt, what I experienced from her moving around in between my serving motion was not sportsmanlike, in my opinion”. “So I think I used my opportunities of the short balls, good shots, the serve“. The 23-year-old American clearly was not daunted by the occassion, as impressively, she found some damaging serves, especially up the tee. “Towards the end of the second set, I said if she has a problem speaking to Maria, if she’s too scared to do it, I would not have any problems speaking to her”, said Vandeweghe. Fond of the odd burger – from In and Out Burger, to be exact – it took an epiphany early past year to make her realise she needed to be more professional. The first-week departure of No. 2 and No. 3 seeds Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep and Safarova’s exit guaranteed a complete makeover of the final eight.
“But, you know, I can’t speak for them”, Vandeweghe said when asked if she could explain why there are so many.
The Siberian won Wimbledon 11 years ago but has only made it past the fourth round once since 2006.
“She (the umpire) said she didn’t believe she was doing it during the motion: I strongly disagreed”, said Vandeweghe. Vandeweghe, who had not advanced beyond the third round of a major prior to this quarter-final, was finding the lines with a fearless self-assurance and bathing in the crowd’s rapturous acclaim as she did so.
“I haven’t seen the names on the trophy in a while because I haven’t held the trophy in many years”.
Number 15 seed Bacsinszky also enjoyed a good tournament at Roland Garros when she reached the semi-final stage and will be hoping to equal that performance with another victory on the grass.
Maria Sharapova progressed to the semifinals of Wimbledon for only the second time in nine years by beating an impressive Coco Vandeweghe on Centre Court. “Definitely no secrets between each other’s games, ” she said. Bacsinszky says she’s fallen back in love with tennis and seems to take great pleasure using her variety and varied spins to construct points. “I think I bring out the best in her. I thought we had a wonderful final in Australia”.
The explosive Keys, who opened the season reaching the Australian Open final four, is bidding for her second trip to a Grand Slam semifinal.
Advertisement
This story has been corrected to show that Novak Djokovic’s quarterfinal match had been suspended at two sets apiece, not one.
