{"id":1312326,"date":"2019-07-11T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T22:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/serena-williams-to-face-simona-halep-in-wimbledon-final\/"},"modified":"2019-07-11T16:28:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T22:28:00","slug":"serena-williams-to-face-simona-halep-in-wimbledon-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/serena-williams-to-face-simona-halep-in-wimbledon-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams to face Simona Halep in Wimbledon final"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
United States’ Serena Williams celebrates defeating Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova during a women’s singles semifinal match on day ten of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Thursday, July 11, 2019. (AP Photo\/Tim Ireland)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

WIMBLEDON, England \u2014 Serena Williams made it look easy in the Wimbledon semifinals. What she really cares about, of course, is what comes next.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why she puts in all the work. Why she keeps at it with everything she\u2019s already won, everything she\u2019s already accomplished.<\/p>\n

Williams is once again on the verge of an eighth Wimbledon championship and 24th Grand Slam title, moving into the final at the All England Club with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over an overmatched Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic on Thursday.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Williams will take on No. 7-seeded Simona Halep of Romania, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over No. 8 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine under a cloudy sky at Centre Court.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be the 11th final at the All England Club for Williams and the first for Halep, whose only major trophy came at the French Open last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to it,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Why wouldn\u2019t she? She owns a 9-1 career record against Halep, including a victory in the Australian Open\u2019s fourth round in January.<\/p>\n

Still, the 37-year-old American also knows that she\u2019s been this close to No. 24 before: In 2018, her first season back on tour after the birth of her daughter, Olympia, Williams reached the finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open but lost each time.<\/p>\n

That has left her Grand Slam total at 23, a record for the professional era and one fewer than Margaret Court accumulated while playing part of her career against amateur competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a great job and I love what I do,\u201d Williams said, \u201cand I\u2019m still pretty good at what I do, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, Serena. Just pretty good.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an up-and-down year because of illness and injury, limiting Williams to 12 matches until last week. After a third-round loss at Roland Garros on June 1, she stayed in France for medical treatment and finally felt pain-free while preparing for Wimbledon in England.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a lot better,\u201d Williams said. \u201cEvery match, I know that I\u2019m improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a three-set struggle against Alison Riske in the quarterfinals Tuesday, Williams was at her dominant best against Strycova, who appeared limited by some sort of issue with her right leg. As it is, the 33-year-old Strycova was the oldest first-time Grand Slam semifinalist in the professional era.<\/p>\n

Williams played cleanly, accumulating nearly twice as many winners as unforced errors, 28-10. She was at her usual court-covering best, which helped limit Strycova to 10 winners. And Williams played calmly.<\/p>\n

The semifinal\u2019s turning point came quickly. Ahead 2-1 in the first set while Strycova served at 30-all, Williams sailed a backhand return way long and let out a cry of \u201cAaah!\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe that got her going, because she simply took over.<\/p>\n

Williams took the next point with a swinging forehand volley winner on the 16th stroke, then one after that when Strycova\u2019s mediocre drop shot landed in the net. Having offered up a break point, Strycova crouched at the baseline and rested her racket on her head.<\/p>\n

A cross-court forehand passing shot delivered the break for Williams, and Strycova bent over again, one of the initial signs that she was dealing with something physical.<\/p>\n

The runaway was on: Williams seized seven points in a row and 16 of 20 to close out that set.<\/p>\n

Strycova would repeatedly flex or shake her legs between points or try to stretch in her sideline chair by pulling her right foot onto her left knee and rocking her leg. Nothing was going to help her slow down Williams on this afternoon, and the match was over after 59 minutes.<\/p>\n

Halep seemed headed for a long day when her semifinal against Svitolina began with a pair of games encompassing 32 points across 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Halep excels at this type of play, more frequently seen on clay courts than grass, and soon enough was on her way to her fifth Grand Slam final.<\/p>\n

Like Strycova, Svitolina never had been to the final four at any Slam. With her boyfriend, former top-10 player Gael Monfils, in the stands, Svitolina made things competitive enough at the outset.<\/p>\n

Five of the first 11 points lasted at least 10 strokes; two went 23.<\/p>\n

Svitolina even earned three break chances in that opening game, but Halep eventually held there on the 16th point. Another game of the same length followed, and there again were three break points, except the difference was that Halep converted her last when Svitolina pushed a backhand wide.<\/p>\n

While Svitolina would break back at love, that was pretty much the end of her challenge to Halep, who scrambled to cover the court so well, took balls early and created angles that earned her points.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe played unbelievable today,\u201d Svitolina said. \u201cShe was moving really good, striking the ball perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

That style of play serves the Romanian so well at Roland Garros, where she was the runner-up twice in addition to last year\u2019s title. Halep also reached an Australian Open final.<\/p>\n

The former No. 1 never had that kind of success at Wimbledon until now.<\/p>\n

Her play was intense Thursday. So was her body language, including when Halep looked up at her coach, yelled and extended an arm in the first set\u2019s final game.<\/p>\n

By then, she was in control. Now comes a tougher task: beating Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect a lot what she has done and what she\u2019s doing,\u201d Halep said. \u201cBut now I feel stronger, mentally, facing her. We will see what is going to happen. It\u2019s just a big challenge for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States’ Serena Williams celebrates defeating Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova during a women’s singles semifinal match on day ten of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Thursday, July 11, 2019. (AP Photo\/Tim Ireland)AP | AP WIMBLEDON, England \u2014 Serena Williams made it look easy in the Wimbledon semifinals. What she really cares about, of course, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 12:30:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}