LONDON: Reigning champion Serena Williams moved into the semi-finals, while five-time winner Venus Williams and US Open champion Kim Clijsters were a pair of quarter-final upset victims on Tuesday at The Championships, Wimbledon.
The top-seeded and World No 1 Serena handled ninth-seeded Chinese Li Na 7-5, 6-3 to reach her seventh career Wimbledon semi-final.
Serena’s semi-final opponent will be a non-seed Czech lefthander Petra Kvitova who defeated Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 7-6 (8), 8-6 to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals.
The 62nd-ranked Kvitova saved five match points against the 80th-ranked qualifier. The Estonian failed to serve out the match in the third set when leading 5-4 and also led 5-2 in the tie-breaker.
In the big upset on Day 8, unseeded Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria landed in the semis with a stunning 6-2, 6-3 upset of the second-seeded Venus at the All England Club.
Pironkova, the 82nd-ranked player in the world, had never before advanced past the second round in a major tournament before her unprecedented run here at this particular fortnight. The 22-year-old was able to post four breaks of serve and a 12-to-6 winners-to-errors ratio, giving her the biggest victory of her career.
Venus, meanwhile, struggled with her all-around game throughout the match. Armed with two break points at 2-2 in the first set, she was unable to polish off the game and went on to lose five consecutive games before simply faltering down the stretch in the 1-hour, 25-minute affair.
Last year’s runner-up, Venus committed 29 unforced errors while hitting only 22 winners, mitigating her normal powerful serve and ground-strokes. This marks her earliest exit at Wimbledon since 2006, when she was ousted in the third round.
Pironkova, who becomes the first-ever Bulgarian to reach a major semi-final, also stunned Venus in a first-round match at the Aussie Open four years ago.
After losing a chance at breaking Pironkova early, Venus seemed to lose her touch. One of the American’s five double faults gave the capable Bulgarian a break point in the next game, and a backhand error from Venus made it 4-2.
Pironkova held for a 5-2 advantage, then won the first three points on Venus’ service game for several set points. Venus managed to push the game to deuce before two consecutive backhand errors gave Pironkova the first set and her ninth consecutive set in this most prestigious of tennis tournaments.
Venus looked as if she was starting to take control, breaking Pironkova for the first and only time of the match to grab a 2-1 lead in the second set. The Bulgarian, however, was unfazed, breaking right back with help from an excellent running lob shot near the net to gain two break points. A Venus forehand error at the net helped even the stanza at 2-2.
After a hold, Pironkova broke Venus yet again with a powerful forehand shot into the corner near the baseline, forcing an error for a 4-2 advantage. Pironkova had no problem closing out the match from there, and, fittingly, Venus’ 29th and final error—a forehand into the net—sent Pironkova to the ground in celebration of the victory.
This marks Venus’ worst-ever loss at Wimbledon. The former No. 1 was last year’s runner-up here to her younger sister and is 5-3 in eight Wimbledon finals since 2000.
An eighth-seeded Clijsters, meanwhile, started fast before getting overtaken by 21st-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. The Russian advanced on her second match point when Clijsters netted one final
forehand.
The 25-year-old Zvonareva will appear in her first-ever Wimbledon and second career Grand Slam semi. She appeared in the Aussie Open final four last year.
Clijsters, who retired from tennis only to return to the tour last year, has never reached a Wimbledon final. The two-time US Open champ is a two-time semi-finalist at the AEC.
Zvonareva will encounter Pironkova in an improbable semi-final here on Thursday, with the winner landing in her first career Grand Slam final.
Nadal romps into last eight, Roddick ousted
Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal booked his place in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu while Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun sent three-time finalist Andy Roddick crashing out in the fourth round on Monday with a stunning 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (5/7), 9-7 win.
Nadal eased concerns over his fitness as he romped to a comfortable victory in just over two hours on Court One to set up a meeting with Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling in a repeat of the recent French Open final.
Unseeded Lu broke Roddick’s serve just once in the game — in the deciding game of the final set — to become the first Taiwanese man or woman to make the last eight of a Grand Slam. The 26-year-old, ranked 82nd in the world, also became the first Asian man to make the last eight at the All England Club since Japan’s Shuzo Masuoka back in 1995.
He will now face Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, the third seed, in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
