Tennis can be a crazy game. Want proof? Look at yesterday’s quarterfinals. Three matches affected by injury, and the only one that wasn’t had the oldest dude in the draw. Speaking of which, the men’s may have started off in routine fashion, but it’s certainly coming to a wacky conclusion.
Now the focus shifts back to the women’s side, and a quartet with more variety than Fabrice Santoro. Read on for a look at all the semifinal action on day 10 at the championships.
Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [14] vs Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) – 1st on Centre Court
On the surface this seems like a mismatch – the world no. 15 versus 85, a major champion and Wimbledon finalist against someone who had never made it past the third round, a full arsenal of weapons versus an empty locker – and yet it’s not quite that simple. Rybarikova has actually split her head-to-head with Muguruza 2-2, the most recent of which was a 6-3, 6-1 win on the grass of Birmingham just before the latter made her run to the 2015 final, making the most of her first serve and completely neutralising the Spaniard’s (57.9% return points won, per tennis abstract) in a very impressive display. Add that to the fact Rybarikova comes in having just dealt with the similar pace of Coco Vandeweghe and you truly can’t count her out. Is Muguruza the favourite? Absolutely, and she definitely possesses a degree of mental toughness and consistency that someone like Vandeweghe doesn’t, but this is a textbook “nobody believes in me” game for Rybarikova, and that makes her very dangerous indeed.
Venus Williams (USA) [10] vs Johanna Konta (GBR) [6] – 2nd on Centre Court
Having gone through a draw reminiscent of the brutal difficulty of a Dark Souls game, it’s only fitting that Jo Konta’s boss battles continue with a completely different and highly lethal opponent in five-time Wimbledon champ Venus Williams. Leading the head-to-head with Williams 3-2, Konta comes into the match the slight favourite, but you’d have to say history means nothing to Williams considering the ease with which she’s rewriting it. Both offensive players, it’s really a question of who executes their style of play better, with each trying to hit through the court – Venus with her acceleration and raw power, Konta with her depth and redirection – and it’s highly likely the momentum see-saws throughout. Heading in it’s impossible a to predict with any certainty, shirt of saying that whoever wins, it’ll be one hell of a story for Saturday.
