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WIMBLEDON, England – It was the overworked day they call Monday Manic at Wimbledon, and yet Serena Williams seemed so impassive.
See a second sweet service. Crush it.
Need an ace.
The suspense was gone shortly after the start of his fourth round match, and in 62 minutes it was over for real while Williams beat the Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina, 6-2, 6- 2.
Williams is back in the quarterfinals at the All England Club without having to deal with anyone ranked in the top 60. Next Tuesday: No. 52 Camila Giorgi of Italy
Winning, and Williams' opponent in the semifinals would be the No. 13 seed Julia Görges or the No. 20 seed Kiki Bertens, who had not gone past the third round at Wimbledon until the this year.
Win that, and Williams would be guaranteed not to face a top 10 in the final. They all left after the loss of 6-3, 7-6 (1) to Bertens in the seventh-seeded Karolina Pliskova on Monday
After all, Williams had a late pregnancy, complications after the injury. childbirth, difficulties in losing weight. and a new injury at Roland Garros last month – could his 24th record Grand Slam be so simple?
"It's an incredibly favorable draw," said Tracy Austin, the former number one player. is now an incisive television analyst. "I do not think she's in the best place she has been in her career, but with who stays in the table, I think she's in a very good place to win."
It's undeniable. It was a wild and unpredictable women's tournament, and it will now be the first Grand Slam tournament in 50 years of open tennis where there will be no top 10 in the women's quarterfinals. This is also the first time that this has been happening in Wimbledon since the beginning of sowing in the 1920s.
But these statistics, irresistible as they are, do not paint the complete picture. How can it be real chaos with Williams still in the frame?
She could be ranked 181st and 25th seeded from maternity leave, but she has won seven Wimbledon singles titles and won an 18-game series win at the All England Club.
There is also Angelique Kerber to consider. She is a former No. 1 and Wimbledon finalist, ranked 11th but ranked 10th, and is back to playing grass tennis.
"On a technical level, we still have a player in the top 10," Williams said Monday, perhaps trying to curb rising expectations.
But she did not really play her own chances when asked if she would have liked to play a seeded player at this stage
"I faced a thousand three seeds in my life, "said Williams, 36. "I'm ok".
In the other half of the table, Kerber will face Daria Kasatkina, the No. 14 seed of Russia, in a quarterfinal. In the other, Jelena Ostapenko, number 12, will face Dominika Cibulkova
A Williams-Kerber final seems to be a good idea: it would be a rematch of their irresistible 2016 final here, won by Williams, 7-5, 6-4. But in the plot department, there would be no final between Williams and Cibulkova, the fierce Slovak who was pushed off the 32nd and last seeded position by the All England decision Club to take the Williams departure
Austin said with a chuckle.
But before we continue to explore the possibilities of Saturday's final, it may be best to refocus on Tuesday, when Williams faces Giorgi, who may be
She defeated Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Garbiñe Muguruza – all former No. 1 players.
In 2015, Giorgi was two points off a surprise win over Williams' big sister, Venus, in the third round of the season. Australian Open before losing in three sets. Last month at the Open de France, Giorgi served twice for the match against Sloane Stephens in the third round before Stephens retaliated and reached the final.
Giorgi had beaten Stephens in their previous two games, a tight match This is not what Kamau Murray, Stephens' coach, could describe as scary
. "It's when we point out that we are waiting for one thing and that we are taking another one," he says. "Sloane probably slept a little less that night, and so did I."
At 5 feet 5 inches, Giorgi physically imposes hard, but she is very fast and has world-class power, which she generates with a remarkable racket head speed and an attack mentality. She can hit and counter with her forehand or backhand with both hands and, more surprisingly, can serve at speeds typically reserved for players with more obvious leverage.
Giorgi's first-serve average Monday 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ekaterina Makarova was 110 miles per hour, faster than Williams's average of 106 against Rodina.
The gap in the speed of the second service was even wider. Giorgi averages 97 m.p.h. Williams at 88, but this pace also accompanies an increased risk. Giorgi served 38 double faults in this tournament – significantly more than any player, female or male.
"I can not complain about my service, I think it's a good move, one of my best shots," said Giorgi, who said she was happy to live with the consequences. "It's my game to play more aggressive and make more mistakes, but I'm not going to change that.Yes to improve but not change."
But Giorgi has a career tour title for a reason, many in fact. It is inconsistent and sometimes fragile under pressure. She has not yet won a set in her previous three games against Williams and is now in unknown territory: at age 26, she will play her first quarterfinal of Grand Slam singles.
But Austin said that she had seen some slight modifications Giorgi's approach to grip-it-and-rip-it
"Before, it was just power , power, power, but now she will put a little more spin on her photos. "
Giorgi is also more and more interested in going from the front and enjoying the openings that his basic bolts can produce. She has been net 104 times in four rounds, more than any other woman in the tournament and twice as often as Williams.
In summary, this could be a real brawl, and what's also intriguing is that it's the only game at Wimbledon this year where Williams will not be a day off before that. She plays.
But she was barely pushed Monday against Rodina in the sun. She hit the ball very clean, even on the stretch, and hit the points with her ultimate weapon – the service – when she needed it the most.
It was easy to forget that this is only the fourth Williams tournament since she returned to the WTA Tour in March; One can easily forget the disappointment of his face by announcing his withdrawal from the French Open with a pectoral injury before facing Sharapova in the fourth round.
At this stage of his career, another unexpected injury or barrage is not excluded, but his path seemed so sweet on Monday Manic
And a 24th Grand Slam title, which would tie Margaret Court for the record, is now only three matches away.
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