Serena Williams' half of the women's draw was always likely to turn a semi-final into the de facto final, such has been the collapse in the other half. The two women who walked off Centre Court victorious yesterday afternoon have certainly conspired to ensure that the most exciting possible outcome is the one that has emerged.
Williams, the five-time Wimbledon champion who is again challenging to hold all four majors at once, versus Maria Sharapova, the woman who, had she arrived outside the era of Williams' hegemony, would have won more.
Sharapova had to fight extremely hard to earn victory over unseeded American CoCo Vandeweghe, who after the match continued her complaint that the world No 4 had engaged in unsportsmanlike contact in their gruelling, near three-hour-long encounter.
“She was moving around in the middle of my motion on my second serve,” Vandeweghe said, having told the umpire in the middle of the match that if she was “too scared” to talk to Sharapova about it, she would do it herself. Sharapova said: “It is what it is. If she said it I can't argue, that's her words.”
The umpire, Eva Asderaki-Moore, took no action during the match, and there appeared to be no cause for her to do so.
Sharapova has not beaten her semi-final opponent in 11 years, a fact that was put to Williams in the moment after her victory. “But she's such a fighter and it's always good to see her doing well,” she said. “I love playing Maria. I think she brings out the best in me. I think I bring out the best in her.” An ominous sentiment, given the pair's track record.
Sharapova beat Williams in the 2004 final but the American had her Wimbledon revenge in the fourth round five years ago. “That will be an incredible moment,” Sharapova said. “For me to step out on Centre Court against her again.”
For long periods in her quarter-final with Victoria Azarenka, just as in much of the rest of the tournament, Williams was far below her own high standards. As has also happened before, her uncertainty came at the start. Azarenka, a former world No 1 and twice Australian Open champion, served immaculately and relentlessly, and had won the first set 6-3 before the contest seemed to have begun. Williams served poorly, made mistakes, while long runs of points went all but uncontested.
But unfortunately for Azarenka, then came the second set and the third. Williams and the match were transformed. Three unforced errors and 17 winners in taking the second set 6-2 tell their own story.
In the third, with Williams already a break up, a crackling Azarenka passing shot was swooping in at Williams' feet, who somehow excavated the ball from around her ankles, stripping it of all speed, and clipped it short over the net, from where it could not possibly be returned. Such shots reduce any opponent's finest endeavours to an irrelevance. Williams went on to win the set and the match 6-3.
Sharapova was tested far more than the 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 scoreline suggests and one statistic in the match was particularly damaging. Only 22 per cent of her returns landed near the baseline, with a worrying 58 per cent bouncing in or near the service line, from where they sat up nicely for Vandeweghe and were punished.
If Sharapova is to play more than one more match in this year's tournament, that sort of inexactitude will not be good enough.
For long periods, especially at the end of the second set, Vandeweghe's blistering forehands pinned her to the back of the court, homing in time and again on the worn-out chalk of the baseline. Sharapova will know that no one boasts groundstrokes as punishing as the opponent she now faces tomorrow.
Williams has, in a gentle but serious way, banned all questions and all talk of the looming “Serena Slam”, the term that has been settled upon to describe the achievement she is now very close to achieving for the second time - holding all four Grand Slam titles at once. On paper at least, Sharapova is the most serious obstacle remaining in her way. On yesterday's evidence, only Williams' uncertainties, and her tendency to descend periodically into the mortal realm, can prevent her. – The Independent