London: Serena Williams stayed on track for an eighth Wimbledon title as she fought back to beat Italian Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a fiercely contested quarter-final on Tuesday.
For the first time in the tournament, the 36-year-old was seriously challenged as unseeded Giorgi, playing in her first Grand Slam quarter-final, fought fire with fire to claim the opening set on Centre Court.
Serena responded by raising the intensity level and began striking the ball with ferocious power to break Giorgi's serve for the first time on her way to levelling the match and then wrapping it up.
"Every time I play Giorgi she always plays that level so I knew going in it would not be an easy match," Serena, who will face German 13th seed Julia Goerges in the semi-finals, said shortly after walking off court. "After the first set I said 'okay let's go three sets', I just kept fighting."
German 13th seed Goerges ended the giant-killing run of her close friend Kiki Bertens with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 win.
The two often go out for dinner together when they are playing at the same tournament, but there was no room for sharing any friendly banter as both eyed a place in the last four of the most famous tennis tournament. Bertens had defeated Venus Williams and Karolina Pliskova earlier.
Jelena Ostapenko became the first Latvian to reach the Wimbledon singles semi-finals after she subdued Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova 7-5, 6-4.
Two successive aces, clocked at 103 and 106 mph, gave the 21-year-old the first set and the 2017 French Open champion tightened her grip on the contest when she ended another flurry of breaks to go 4-2 up in the second.
Cibulkova did her best to try and hang on but the Slovakian was left chasing shadows as Ostapenko blasted a backhand winner on her first match point to reach the last four without dropping a set in this year's tournament.
She will meet German 11th seed Angelique Kerber for a place in Saturday's final.
Kerber reached the semi-finals with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Russian Daria Kasatkina but needed seven match points to see off the 14th seed. Twice Grand Slam winner Kerber, 30, is the highest seed left in the women's draw.
The 2016 finalist Kerber was 3-0 up in the first set before her 21-year-old opponent had time to react. Kasatkina steadied herself to reach 3-4 before she double-faulted on break point and lamely surrendered the game to Kerber, who then served for the set.
Kerber again broke to go 3-1 up in the second set before Kasatkina levelled for 3-3 only for another double fault to put Kerber back in the driving seat. With Kerber serving for a place in the last four, Kasatkina earned two break points with a forehand and levelled the scores before again failing to hold her serve and being left on the backfoot.
Kasatkina then saved five match points before surviving yet another thanks to Hawkeye, with Kerber's lob landing just beyond the baseline. The German finally won through to the semis when Kasatkina's return found the net.
Argentina's fifth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro overcame Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 7-6 (7-5) in four hours and 24 minutes to set up a quarter-final contest with Rafa Nadal on Wednesday. The fourth round match was suspended due to bad light on Monday with Del Potro leading by two sets to one.
In the men's doubles quarter finals, American seventh seeds Mike Bryan and Jack Sock defeated India's Divij Saran and Artem Sitak of New Zeland 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (3-7), 6-4.
On Monday, Novak Djokovic was kept waiting in the wings till after 7 pm local time before he could start swinging his racket against Russia's Karen Khachanov. But there was no stopping the Serb once he made it on to Court One as he romped to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win to reach the quarter finals for a 10th time.
Reuters
