Despite a good performance, Julia Görges missed her first Grand Slam final – and thus also a German-German final against Angelique Kerber.
Serena Williams won the semi-final on Thursday afternoon 6-2, 6-4 after just over an hour of play.
Both players dominated their serves at the beginning, even if Görges still had to fend off a break point after a quick 40:0. At 3-2 Williams pulled on, put Görges on the defensive with force and great length and increased to 4-2; shortly afterwards she took the serve off the German Fed Cup player again – to zero and to win the set.
Williams, in front of the royal eyes of Duchess Meghan Markle, began set two just as energetically and willingly to pull the tooth of the first major semi-finalist Görges early. Görges fought against it, but was too seldom able to move Williams. An unsuccessful stop at breakpoint brought the 36-year-old American to a 4-2 break; shortly before the end, at 5-3, Görges used her third break chance to follow after a 0:40 at Williams’ serve. However, she became too hectic as she tried to equal the score at 5-5.
The result of a good match: 16 winners with only 7 mistakes at Williams, 20 to 11 the numbers at Görges. But the points where Williams misled her opponent into “forced” mistakes (which are not recorded in statistics) – and the data on serve: Williams made 87 percent of the points on first serve, Görges only 59 percent; Williams scored 25 out of 50 points on return, Görges only 14 out of 50, “It’s crazy, I didn’t expect that on my fourth tournament since my return,” Williams said afterwards.
Serena Williams had returned to the tour in March after a one-year baby break and, after a moderate and unfitting comeback in Indian Wells and Miami, had taken another break to get fit again. She then reached the round of 16 at the French Open, where she had not been able to compete due to an injury to her chest muscles. With her entry in the Wimbledon finals, she will once again rank among the top 30 in the world.
For Görges, the most successful Grand Slam week comes to an end with his two-set defeat. At Wimbledon, she had never made it through the third round and had always lost in round one over the past five years. Two years ago, the 29-year-old reorganized her team, with Michael Geserer as coach and Florian Zitzelsberger as physiotherapist and athletics trainer. “I’m more mature and take on more responsibility on the court,” she told tennisnet.com a few weeks ago. Thanks to her successful week in Wimbledon, Görges will return to the top ten in the world on Monday – she managed this for the first time at the beginning of the year.
Williams will face Angelique Kerber in her thirtieth Grand Slam final on Saturday afternoon, who had previously won in two sets against Jelena Ostapenko in the first semi-final. Williams and Kerber will face each other for the second time in the final on the Holy Lawn after 2016, when Williams won in two sets. Kerber had won the Australian Open that same year over Williams.
Should Serena Williams win, she would set the all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles won in singles and catch up with Australian Margaret Court.