Djokovic and Sharapova in semifinals
Former champion Maria Sharapova is back in the semifinals at Wimbledon. At the England Cup Russian tennis star, Sharapova shut down the comeback and winning the final three-games. She was pushed hard on Centre Court by 47th of ranked Vandeweghe but lifted her game in the third set to win 6-3, 5-7 (3), 6-2 and advance to her 20th Grand Slam semifinal according to sources.
Defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, survived a one-set shootout with big-serving Kevin Anderson to advance to the men’s quarterfinals and keep up his bid for a third Wimbledon title.
Sharapova served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but couldn’t close it out. When Vandeweghe won four straight points to take the second-set tiebreaker, it was the first time that Sharapova had dropped a set all tournament.
Sources announced “I was pretty dominant in the first and the beginning of the second set and things slipped away a little bit for me in that second set tiebreaker, serving for the match,” Sharapova said.“
Sharapova won her first Grand Slam – and only Wimbledon title so far – in 2004 at the age of 17. But this will be her first trip back to the semifinals since 2011, when she lost in the final to Petra Kvitova.
The top-ranked man’s Novak Djokovic beat the 14th-seeded Anderson 7-5 in the fifth set on Court 1 to complete a match that had been suspended by darkness at two sets apiece.
It took 45 minutes of play Tuesday for Djokovic to advance to his 25th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 6-5 victory. He will next face Croatia’s Marin Cilic, a player he has beaten in all 12 of their previous matches.
Djokovic struggled throughout the match in trying to tame while Anderson’s huge serve, but broke him to go up 6-5 in the fifth set to set up his victory.
“I find that this was one of the most difficult matches I’ve played at Wimbledon, maybe in my career,” Djokovic said. At times, I was really helpless with my return.”
Anderson finished with 40 aces, including three in the first game of the fifth set and eight overall in the decider.
But it was two consecutive double-faults by Anderson that proved crucial, leaving him 15-40 down in the 11th game. Djokovic took advantage on the first break point, hitting a forehand return that dropped sharply at Anderson’s feet and forced an error.
Djokovic served out the match in the next game, completing the men’s quarterfinal lineup Grand Slum to the final.
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