Iga Swiatek reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over 19th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova that went from a stroll to a bit of a struggle in the late stages Wednesday.
Swiatek is a five-time Grand Slam champion, with four of those titles on the red clay of the French Open, and the other on the hard courts of the U.S. Open. She’s also twice been a semi-finalist at the hard-court Australian Open.
The grass courts of the All England Club always had given her the most trouble as a pro, even though she did claim a junior championship there in 2018.
On Thursday, Swiatek will face either No. 7 Mirra Andreeva or Belinda Bencic for a spot in the title match at the All England Club.
Swiatek led by a set and 3-0 in the second against Samsonova, who was appearing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Soon, though, it was 4-all, then 5-all. But Swiatek held for a 6-5 lead, then broke to end it, and a smile spread across her face.
Swiss mum Bencic through to her first Wimbledon semi-final
Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic won two tiebreaks to beat teenage Russian seventh seed Mirra Andreeva 7-6(3) 7-6(2) on Wednesday and become a first-time Wimbledon semi-finalist.
The only mother left in the singles draw had four match points after Andreeva double-faulted in the second tiebreak on Centre Court and needed only the one, sealing victory with a smash at the net.
The first Swiss woman to make it to the last four since Martina Hingis in 1998 will now play Poland’s five-times Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek for a place in the final.
Andreeva, 18, fired four aces in the opening set to none for Bencic but there was next to nothing between the closely-matched pair until the Russian netted a couple of forehands in the ensuing tiebreak.
Bencic’s only other Grand Slam semi-final was at the 2019 U.S. Open, when she lost to Canada’s eventual winner Bianca Andreescu.
Now back in the top 20 after maternity leave, she was proud of what she had achieved.
Alcaraz makes quick work of Norrie to reach semifinals
Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the Wimbledon semifinals by beating Cameron Norrie 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday.
Alcaraz extended his winning streak to 23 matches and became the just second Spanish player in history to reach the men’s singles semifinals at Wimbledon on three occasions — the other was Rafael Nadal.
After Norrie held serve to open the match on Centre Court, the second-seeded Alcaraz took control by rattling off the next five games against the left-handed Briton.
Alcaraz never let Norrie into the match — facing only five break points and saving all of them. He compiled 39 winners and 13 aces to go with 26 unforced errors. Alcaraz will face No. 5 Taylor Fritz for a spot in the final.