![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllQuarter-finals
Day nine (Tuesday) - I started watching the court no. 1 coverage and got sucked into the competitive quarter-final between Lulu Sun and Donna Vekic. Both were aiming to get into their first Wimbledon semi-final, but one was just starting on her pro career (Sun was injured straight after leaving college. I still don’t get plumping on New Zealand as her nationality, but then I don’t quite understand why her family did so much travelling), and Vekic was a tour veteran, but had still been ready to change things up by adding Pam Shriver to her team, who had helped with her serve. Both players were keeping the other in check until the end of the first set, when Sun edged it.
To her credit, Vekic did not falter at the start of the second set, but kept at it, and got a break. This meant that she was serving for the set, which is when her admirable serve broke down from nerves (FIVE double faults in one game.) She went to sit down knowing she’d lost that chance, but I guess she was experienced enough to recognise that she was still in the lead at 5-4 and had to try to break Sun, which she did, meaning that it was one set all.
And in the third, perhaps all the matches that Sun had played – the qualifying rounds on top of everything else – and how new all the pressure of playing at this level was showed. Vekic was playing at around the same level she’d been playing, while Sun couldn’t even win a point for a while. In a commanding lead, Vekic got over the line to finally reach a grand slam semi (she’d played two quarter finals previously, one against Bencic and one against Sabalenka, so there had been the pressure that she should win this, but the past experience must have helped) and be the first Croatian in a semi-final at Wimbledon.
The match I really wanted to see that day came next: Carlos Alcaraz v. Tommy Paul. They’d played four times before, and won two each – I’d seen two of them, but they weren’t five-set matches, I gleaned. Anyway, both men started off at full throttle, and Paul (who’d chosen to serve) had a job to keep his serve. It was fast and furious, with Paul’s groundstrokes impressing, a few of those Alcaraz thunderbolts, and one game on Alcaraz’s serve that lasted at least a quarter of an hour. Both were pushing each other’s service games, the set passed the hour mark, and in the penultimate point, Alcaraz made a mistake. In the final point, Paul hit a winner.
Now they couldn’t keep that level up and although some games were long, none were that long. There were breaks, the question was could the player then consolidate it. Paul was still facing long rallies with more confidence than you’d expect, and I think he had the better record when he came to the net. But Alcaraz eventually consolidated a break, and at times his level of play was far superior.
He got an early break in the third, and could have led it 5-1 were it not for a lapse in concentration that gave Paul a reprieve. Paul is almost as athletic and fast as Alcaraz, so most of the dropshots the Spaniard used weren’t that effective. Still, Alcaraz won the third set, and continued to dominate in the fourth. Paul, who’d started with belief he could win this match, coming off a run of wins on grass, playing some of his best tennis, was left stymied. That’s why Alcaraz is a top 3 player whose name is bracketed with legends, and why you’re trying to break into the top 10, sir. Tim Henman is claiming, with some justice, that Alcaraz isn’t playing at his best – there have been lapses of concentration in all his matches.
It turns out Alcaraz will be facing Medvedev, who beat Sinner in five sets (at one point Sinner was clearly unwell.) I hear rumours that Medvedev may be adapting his return position and understanding how to play on grass better. In better news for Italy, Paolini is through to her first Wimbledon semi having beaten Navarro handily.
Day ten (Wednesday) - Thanks to the wonders of iPlayer, I first watched Elena Rybakina vs Elina Svitolina on Centre. Rybakina had chosen to serve, but she hadn’t got her range, and Svitolina broke in the opening game. However, Rybakina was able to break right back, and started to serve better, and I think even then, with the score on serve, I knew she was going to make the weather, and so she did. She broke once, but Svitolina couldn’t do much of anything on her service games, and by the second set, she was flat, while Rybakina was mostly having it all her own way. A demure celebration from her.
Jelena Ostapenko vs Barbora Krejcikova promised to be a match of contrasts. Apparently they came up in the juniors alongside each other and so have played a lot of matches, but Ostapenko has got the better of Krejcikova recently – well, she is the higher seed. Ostapenko played aggressively (quelle surprise), trying to target Krejcikova’s forehand, Krejcikova used more slice and variety. It soon became clear that she was serving better. Not that Ostapenko’s service hasn’t improved, but Krejcikova wasn’t always trying to hit a winner as Ostapenko does. She was better able to absorb Ostapenko’s pace that Putintseva had been, and most notably, because she’s generally a cool customer, she was cheering herself after nearly every point she won. And she was the one to break and win the first set.
The second set was a lot scrappier. Ostapenko fashioned a break, sometimes reining it in just slightly, and was up 4-1, but Krejcikova fought back, helped by the fact that Ostapenko didn’t get half her first serves in. She was serving at 5-4, but had a total wobble, however, after the sit down she reset and played much better and made her way through to the semi-final at Wimbledon for the first time. Another Czech woman doing well at Wimbledon (one for whom Jana Novotna was a mentor). She seemed delighted.
I stayed with the coverage on court no. 1 (and learned de Minaur had withdrawn because of a hip injury, giving Djokovic a walkover.) Taylor Fritz would be facing Lorenzo Musetti, both of them backing up a good grass-court season this year. Musetti was in his first ever grand slam quarter-final. The most striking thing about the first set was that Musetti hadn’t got his rhythm on the first serve. He lost a game quite early, and Fritz is such a strong server that the first set was over and we all knew it.
The second set was a different matter, Musetti started serving better and thus getting more into the points, and he started using his slice, meaning the ball was slow and low, so he could get into a better position, while Fritz mostly refused to come in. Musetti won that set, and stuck with his game plan, making Fritz more and more uncomfortable – he’s not totally terrible at the net, but he refused to come in when a more confident player would have. Fritz’s head was in a whirl, he kept making errors and Musetti won the third set easily.
But in the fourth, overall, Fritz improved his serve and did start coming in and that was enough to get him the fourth set. In the commentators’ booth, Henman and Kyrigos were tipping him (I think the latter felt an affinity with his fellow big server) but Musetti probably played his best tennis in the fifth set, some of it bamboozling Fritz again, some of it just outright winners. He will be facing Djokovic in the semi, where everyone expected Fritz to, and though Djokovic won’t hesitate to come in and probably have too much, Musetti will be an awkward opponent for him.
Day eleven – Women’s semi-finals Unseeded Donna Vekic, who’d been talking about giving up tennis earlier in the year, but who had the most grass-court wins, against Jasmine Paolini, in her second grand slam semi-final in a month or so. It would be about power versus movement, we were told, and at the beginning, power won, with Vekic serving well, hitting deep and hard, and Paolini getting broken and not quite knowing what to do. In the second set, she brought in a little more variety, which paid off, and she won. Vekic went off the court, and came back to restart, which she did well. She was up 4-2 and played a nervy service game. Paolini came back and had the scoreboard advantage, but Vekic put aside her disappointment and competed.
By the end of the set, for about 30 minutes (Paolini had three match points a quarter of an hour apart), all credit to both, it was a fight. Vekic, always languorous between points, might have had a physical issue – she was shaking her forearm at one point, then stretching out whenever she could. It was certainly emotional, with Vekic weeping at one sit down. Paolini ran down everything she could, and seemed to be hitting her hardest, fastest shots towards the end.
It came down to a championship tiebreak, first to 10 with a two-point advantage, and they traded breaks, but mostly won the points on their serve. But just after it had become the longest ever women’s semi-final at Wimbledon, Paolini took her third (I think) match point, and the winning smile was hers. She’s the first Italian woman to reach this stage at Wimbledon, proving it’s not just the men succeeding, and it’s incredible that until Eastbourne this year, she hadn’t won a tour-level match on grass, when she’s great at the net. What a year she’s having. (What a heartbreak for Vekic, although hopefully she will have the perspective to see how close she is. I thought that Paolini looked as if she would have more to give in the final.)
Anyway, the next match, predictably enough, started more quietly, with introverted Rybakina the favourite, although Krejcikova had enough pace and variety to trouble her, and when they’d met before they’d run it close. Should also be noted that she was one of the three 28-year-old semi-finalists, although 25-year-old Rybakina was the only former singles champion here.
Rybakina was serving first and doing so well enough to win her first game, then breaking Krejcikova, and by the time the first wave of spectators had returned was 3-0 up. Soon it was 4-0, and with Rybakina serving, it looked like the set was over. But Krejcikova broke. She was also loudly celebrating every point as she’d done in the previous round. Rybakina would win the set, but it was weird in that she repeatedly broke Krejcikova, but the latter broke Rybakina twice.
In the second set, Krejcikova seemed to remember who she was better, starting to win her service games, despite facing a lot of break points, and brining in a little more variety. She broke Rybakina, mainly by playing more aggressively, although Rybakina made her serve it out, and she threw in three double faults, making life far more difficult for herself, but she won the second.
Once again, it went to a deciding set (it’s been 20 years since both women’s semis went to three sets), although Rybakina had the advantage of serving first. But she was making errors because Krejcikova was putting her into awkward positions, and getting frustrated. And then Krejcikova broke and after going down 0-30, won to consolidate her lead, shutting the door on the former champion. She played a pretty nerveless final game and is through to her first Wimbledon singles final.
As more of a Rybakina fan, I was disappointed, but all credit to Krejcikova for bringing herself back into the match and doing enough in the last two sets to play on her terms. It occurred to me that she looks like she could be related to Bill Murray during this match. For the eighth year running, there’ll be a new ladies singles champion (oh, women’s tennis!) Either Krejcikova can emulate other Czech women by winning here, and, moreover, become a multiple Grand Slam champion, or Paolini can forge new ground for Italian women’s tennis (and annoy some Italian racists) and make up for her recent disappointments at Roland-Garros. I think Krejcikova has got more game, but will she be tired having played a lot of doubles? Paolini will surely retrieve a lot of balls. Hopefully, both will play near their best and not get overcome by nerves.
Day nine (Tuesday) - I started watching the court no. 1 coverage and got sucked into the competitive quarter-final between Lulu Sun and Donna Vekic. Both were aiming to get into their first Wimbledon semi-final, but one was just starting on her pro career (Sun was injured straight after leaving college. I still don’t get plumping on New Zealand as her nationality, but then I don’t quite understand why her family did so much travelling), and Vekic was a tour veteran, but had still been ready to change things up by adding Pam Shriver to her team, who had helped with her serve. Both players were keeping the other in check until the end of the first set, when Sun edged it.
To her credit, Vekic did not falter at the start of the second set, but kept at it, and got a break. This meant that she was serving for the set, which is when her admirable serve broke down from nerves (FIVE double faults in one game.) She went to sit down knowing she’d lost that chance, but I guess she was experienced enough to recognise that she was still in the lead at 5-4 and had to try to break Sun, which she did, meaning that it was one set all.
And in the third, perhaps all the matches that Sun had played – the qualifying rounds on top of everything else – and how new all the pressure of playing at this level was showed. Vekic was playing at around the same level she’d been playing, while Sun couldn’t even win a point for a while. In a commanding lead, Vekic got over the line to finally reach a grand slam semi (she’d played two quarter finals previously, one against Bencic and one against Sabalenka, so there had been the pressure that she should win this, but the past experience must have helped) and be the first Croatian in a semi-final at Wimbledon.
The match I really wanted to see that day came next: Carlos Alcaraz v. Tommy Paul. They’d played four times before, and won two each – I’d seen two of them, but they weren’t five-set matches, I gleaned. Anyway, both men started off at full throttle, and Paul (who’d chosen to serve) had a job to keep his serve. It was fast and furious, with Paul’s groundstrokes impressing, a few of those Alcaraz thunderbolts, and one game on Alcaraz’s serve that lasted at least a quarter of an hour. Both were pushing each other’s service games, the set passed the hour mark, and in the penultimate point, Alcaraz made a mistake. In the final point, Paul hit a winner.
Now they couldn’t keep that level up and although some games were long, none were that long. There were breaks, the question was could the player then consolidate it. Paul was still facing long rallies with more confidence than you’d expect, and I think he had the better record when he came to the net. But Alcaraz eventually consolidated a break, and at times his level of play was far superior.
He got an early break in the third, and could have led it 5-1 were it not for a lapse in concentration that gave Paul a reprieve. Paul is almost as athletic and fast as Alcaraz, so most of the dropshots the Spaniard used weren’t that effective. Still, Alcaraz won the third set, and continued to dominate in the fourth. Paul, who’d started with belief he could win this match, coming off a run of wins on grass, playing some of his best tennis, was left stymied. That’s why Alcaraz is a top 3 player whose name is bracketed with legends, and why you’re trying to break into the top 10, sir. Tim Henman is claiming, with some justice, that Alcaraz isn’t playing at his best – there have been lapses of concentration in all his matches.
It turns out Alcaraz will be facing Medvedev, who beat Sinner in five sets (at one point Sinner was clearly unwell.) I hear rumours that Medvedev may be adapting his return position and understanding how to play on grass better. In better news for Italy, Paolini is through to her first Wimbledon semi having beaten Navarro handily.
Day ten (Wednesday) - Thanks to the wonders of iPlayer, I first watched Elena Rybakina vs Elina Svitolina on Centre. Rybakina had chosen to serve, but she hadn’t got her range, and Svitolina broke in the opening game. However, Rybakina was able to break right back, and started to serve better, and I think even then, with the score on serve, I knew she was going to make the weather, and so she did. She broke once, but Svitolina couldn’t do much of anything on her service games, and by the second set, she was flat, while Rybakina was mostly having it all her own way. A demure celebration from her.
Jelena Ostapenko vs Barbora Krejcikova promised to be a match of contrasts. Apparently they came up in the juniors alongside each other and so have played a lot of matches, but Ostapenko has got the better of Krejcikova recently – well, she is the higher seed. Ostapenko played aggressively (quelle surprise), trying to target Krejcikova’s forehand, Krejcikova used more slice and variety. It soon became clear that she was serving better. Not that Ostapenko’s service hasn’t improved, but Krejcikova wasn’t always trying to hit a winner as Ostapenko does. She was better able to absorb Ostapenko’s pace that Putintseva had been, and most notably, because she’s generally a cool customer, she was cheering herself after nearly every point she won. And she was the one to break and win the first set.
The second set was a lot scrappier. Ostapenko fashioned a break, sometimes reining it in just slightly, and was up 4-1, but Krejcikova fought back, helped by the fact that Ostapenko didn’t get half her first serves in. She was serving at 5-4, but had a total wobble, however, after the sit down she reset and played much better and made her way through to the semi-final at Wimbledon for the first time. Another Czech woman doing well at Wimbledon (one for whom Jana Novotna was a mentor). She seemed delighted.
I stayed with the coverage on court no. 1 (and learned de Minaur had withdrawn because of a hip injury, giving Djokovic a walkover.) Taylor Fritz would be facing Lorenzo Musetti, both of them backing up a good grass-court season this year. Musetti was in his first ever grand slam quarter-final. The most striking thing about the first set was that Musetti hadn’t got his rhythm on the first serve. He lost a game quite early, and Fritz is such a strong server that the first set was over and we all knew it.
The second set was a different matter, Musetti started serving better and thus getting more into the points, and he started using his slice, meaning the ball was slow and low, so he could get into a better position, while Fritz mostly refused to come in. Musetti won that set, and stuck with his game plan, making Fritz more and more uncomfortable – he’s not totally terrible at the net, but he refused to come in when a more confident player would have. Fritz’s head was in a whirl, he kept making errors and Musetti won the third set easily.
But in the fourth, overall, Fritz improved his serve and did start coming in and that was enough to get him the fourth set. In the commentators’ booth, Henman and Kyrigos were tipping him (I think the latter felt an affinity with his fellow big server) but Musetti probably played his best tennis in the fifth set, some of it bamboozling Fritz again, some of it just outright winners. He will be facing Djokovic in the semi, where everyone expected Fritz to, and though Djokovic won’t hesitate to come in and probably have too much, Musetti will be an awkward opponent for him.
Day eleven – Women’s semi-finals Unseeded Donna Vekic, who’d been talking about giving up tennis earlier in the year, but who had the most grass-court wins, against Jasmine Paolini, in her second grand slam semi-final in a month or so. It would be about power versus movement, we were told, and at the beginning, power won, with Vekic serving well, hitting deep and hard, and Paolini getting broken and not quite knowing what to do. In the second set, she brought in a little more variety, which paid off, and she won. Vekic went off the court, and came back to restart, which she did well. She was up 4-2 and played a nervy service game. Paolini came back and had the scoreboard advantage, but Vekic put aside her disappointment and competed.
By the end of the set, for about 30 minutes (Paolini had three match points a quarter of an hour apart), all credit to both, it was a fight. Vekic, always languorous between points, might have had a physical issue – she was shaking her forearm at one point, then stretching out whenever she could. It was certainly emotional, with Vekic weeping at one sit down. Paolini ran down everything she could, and seemed to be hitting her hardest, fastest shots towards the end.
It came down to a championship tiebreak, first to 10 with a two-point advantage, and they traded breaks, but mostly won the points on their serve. But just after it had become the longest ever women’s semi-final at Wimbledon, Paolini took her third (I think) match point, and the winning smile was hers. She’s the first Italian woman to reach this stage at Wimbledon, proving it’s not just the men succeeding, and it’s incredible that until Eastbourne this year, she hadn’t won a tour-level match on grass, when she’s great at the net. What a year she’s having. (What a heartbreak for Vekic, although hopefully she will have the perspective to see how close she is. I thought that Paolini looked as if she would have more to give in the final.)
Anyway, the next match, predictably enough, started more quietly, with introverted Rybakina the favourite, although Krejcikova had enough pace and variety to trouble her, and when they’d met before they’d run it close. Should also be noted that she was one of the three 28-year-old semi-finalists, although 25-year-old Rybakina was the only former singles champion here.
Rybakina was serving first and doing so well enough to win her first game, then breaking Krejcikova, and by the time the first wave of spectators had returned was 3-0 up. Soon it was 4-0, and with Rybakina serving, it looked like the set was over. But Krejcikova broke. She was also loudly celebrating every point as she’d done in the previous round. Rybakina would win the set, but it was weird in that she repeatedly broke Krejcikova, but the latter broke Rybakina twice.
In the second set, Krejcikova seemed to remember who she was better, starting to win her service games, despite facing a lot of break points, and brining in a little more variety. She broke Rybakina, mainly by playing more aggressively, although Rybakina made her serve it out, and she threw in three double faults, making life far more difficult for herself, but she won the second.
Once again, it went to a deciding set (it’s been 20 years since both women’s semis went to three sets), although Rybakina had the advantage of serving first. But she was making errors because Krejcikova was putting her into awkward positions, and getting frustrated. And then Krejcikova broke and after going down 0-30, won to consolidate her lead, shutting the door on the former champion. She played a pretty nerveless final game and is through to her first Wimbledon singles final.
As more of a Rybakina fan, I was disappointed, but all credit to Krejcikova for bringing herself back into the match and doing enough in the last two sets to play on her terms. It occurred to me that she looks like she could be related to Bill Murray during this match. For the eighth year running, there’ll be a new ladies singles champion (oh, women’s tennis!) Either Krejcikova can emulate other Czech women by winning here, and, moreover, become a multiple Grand Slam champion, or Paolini can forge new ground for Italian women’s tennis (and annoy some Italian racists) and make up for her recent disappointments at Roland-Garros. I think Krejcikova has got more game, but will she be tired having played a lot of doubles? Paolini will surely retrieve a lot of balls. Hopefully, both will play near their best and not get overcome by nerves.
