Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Wimbledon semifinals set

Someone not familiar with the tour might look at the Wimbledon semifinal draw and conclude that it's a bit askew--the 16th seed will play the 17th seed, but the 3rd seed will play an unseeded competitor. But the 16th seed is 2019 Wimbledon champion Simona Halep, so the levels are actually not that disparate.

Halep played 20th seed Amanda Anisimova in today's quarterfinal match, and--toward the end of the second set, the Romanian star slipped into the old "Simona mode"--she let her opponent in, and Anisimova was quick to assert herself. Having won the first set, and with a 5-1 lead in the second set, Halep saw some opportunities slip away. Her frustration was obvious, but she was nevertheless able to continue her run of straight-set victories by defeating Anisimova 6-2, 6-4.

In today's other quarterfinal, big-serving Elena Rybakina, seeded 17th, defeated Ajla Tomljanvic 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Rybakina, like Halep, had a "moment" when she first served for the match, but she was able to use her mighty serve to erase any doubts when she served for the match a second time. In that game, she held at love, and--for good measure--hit two aces (including match point), bringing her ace total for the match to 15.

This is Rybakina's second time to play at Wimbledon.

Here is the semifinal draw:

Elena Rybakina (17) vs. Simona Halep (16)
Ons Jabeur (3) vs. Tatjana Maria

The semifinals are also set in doubles competition:

Elise Mertens/Zhang Shuai (1) vs. Danielle Collins/Desirae Krawczyk
Lyudmyla Kichenok/Alona Ostapenko (4) vs. Barbora Krejickova/Katerina Siniakova (2)

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)