Angelique Kerber became the first WTA player to make the semifinals of Wimbledon 2016, beating Simona Halep in a thrilling and awkward match that featured so many breaks of serve that points won on a player’s own serve turned out to be a decisive factor.
The reigning Australian Open champion Kerber opened the quarterfinal with a love hold and amazingly it turned out to be practically a decisive game of the set, as all the way to the tenth game we had one break after the other. Can you imagine that Halep earned her first game point after 33 minutes of play? With that game point the Romanian leveled to 5-5, but in the next game Kerber produced a love hold and easily broke Halep’s serve afterwards, as the world No.5 made a double fault on the break and set point.
The second set was a little bit less weird when it came to holds of serve, but again from 4-2 for the fourth-ranked Kerber we had four straight breaks. Just as in the first set, after ten games the set was in equilibrium at 5-5, but this time Kerber finished the job in the tiebreak. Final score: 7-5 7-6(2).
Kerber’s semifinal opponent will be 36-year-old Venus Williams, who beat Yaroslava Shvedova 7-6(5) 6-2 on No.1 Court in the quarterfinal that took place at the same time as Kerber’s match on Centre Court. (photo: Jimmie48)
