Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Sabalenka survives Siegemund

Eight years ago, Laura Siegemund defeated Venus Williams 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 in the second round in Charleston. Later, in press, Williams remarked that the match "...could be the best match she’ll ever play in her life." I have no idea how that match rates with Siegemund. That same year, she won Stuttgart, defeating Zhang Shuai, 8th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, 2nd seed Karolina Pliskova, 4th seed Simona Halep, and Kiki Mladenovic. Unfortunately, I can't recall whether one or more of those matches was exceptional.

If Siegemund had played the third set in today's Wimbledon quarterfinal the way that she played the first set, she would surely have proven Williams wrong. Few players are as good at flummoxing big hitters as Siegemund is, and she went about flummoxing top seed Aryna Sabalenka with her drop shots, chips, line-skidding shots, and tricky serves in an almost businesslike way--until she didn't. 

Siegemund pulled all of her tricks successfully in the opening set, and in the second set--as one would expect--Sabalenka improved her service game, while--at the same time--her opponent's serve was less effective than it had been earlier. It was also at this point that Siegemund began to make repeated backhand errors.

In the final set, Siegemund, after a while, appeared to be suffering from fatigue. Despite going up 3-1 and--a bit later--4-3, she wasn't able to get far enough ahead of Sabalenka to defeat her. She said later that she had indeed become tired, and that she didn't take the risks that she should have taken. It should also be noted that Sabalenka is an excellent doubles player and has some net savvy of her own.

After the match, Sabalenka said that of her opponent's game: "It's a smart game. She's really making everyone work against her....It doesn't matter if you're a big server, a big hitter, you have to work. You have to run, you have to earn the win. I didn't want her to see that I was annoyed or anything by her--even if I was a little bit at some points--but I was trying not to give her that energy."

Sabalenka won the match, which lasted just shy of three hours, and was highly entertaining. Her 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory puts her in the semifinals, in which she will play 13th seed Amanda Anisimova, who defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 7-6 (9) in the second quarterfinal of the day.

Anisimova has always impressed with her tennis. Ever since her run to the semifinals of the French Open in 2019, when she was just 17 years old, she's been someone to watch. In 2022, she reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Her career was interrupted, however, when she made a smart decision to leave the tour for a while in order to strengthen her mental health. It's been a tough climb back up the rankings, but today, Anisimova reached the semifinals of Wimbledon.

The first set was all about Anisimova, who needed less than half an hour to win the first set 6-1 over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. However, the Russian player, a tour veteran who has played her share of big matches, made the second set more competitive, though Anisimova led at 4-2. At 5-3, when Anisimova served for the match, she was broken. Pavlyuchenkova saved two match points and forced a tiebreak, in which she held four set points. She then saved another match point, but Anisimova prevailed.

There was a major upset in doubles today. 2nd seeds Gaby Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe were upset, 7-5, 7-6 (4), by 8th seeds Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens. And in the first round of wheelchair singles, Diede De Groot defeated Lucy Shuker 6-1, 6-1.

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