Serena faces Kerber in Wimbledon final
Angelique Kerber returns to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko during their Wimbledon women’s singles semifinal at the All England Club in London yesterday. The German won 6-3, 6-3 and will meet American Serena Wliiams in the final.
Serena Williams booked a Wimbledon final rematch against Angelique Kerber as the seven-time champion marched into her 10th All England Club title match with a 6-2, 6-4 rout of Julia Goerges yesterday.
On a 20-match winning streak at Wimbledon, Serena is the third oldest female Grand Slam finalist in the Open era at 36 years and 291 days.
She will face German world No. 10 Kerber tomorrow in a repeat of the 2016 showpiece won by Williams.
Williams has often blasted her rivals off Centre Court with ferocious power-hitting, but German 13th seed Goerges was sent packing with a more subtle 70-minute display featuring just 16 winners and five aces.
In only her fourth tournament since the birth of her daughter Olympia in September, the 23-time Grand Slam champion is closing in on her first major title as a mother.
“It’s crazy. I don’t even know how to feel. I didn’t expect to do this well in my fourth tournament back,” Williams said. “I had a really tough pregnancy delivery. I had to have multiple surgeries and almost didn’t make it to be honest.
“I’m just enjoying every moment of this. This was not inevitable for me.”
The American star will have history in her sights against Kerber as she tries to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slams singles titles.
An eighth Wimbledon title would also move her past Steffi Graf into second place on the list of female Wimbledon champions, behind nine-time winner Martina Navratilova.
Serena will go into her 30th Grand Slam final — her first since winning the 2017 Australian Open — holding a 6-2 lead in her head to head record against Kerber.
After all the controversy about the decision to seed Williams 25th at Wimbledon despite her position at 181 in the WTA rankings, she has proved the tournament’s officials were actually too conservative.
Earlier, Kerber raced into her fourth Grand Slam final, crushing former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-3 in 67 minutes.
The 30-year-old hit only 10 winners but that was all it took to get the job done as Latvian 12th seed Ostapenko shot herself in the foot with 36 unforced errors.
It will be Kerber’s first Grand Slam final since she won the second of her two major titles at the 2016 US Open.
Kerber, who also won the Australian Open in 2016, is bidding to become the first German woman to win Wimbledon since Graf in 1996.
