Inside look at the semis – Wimbledon

By maxime68 on Friday, July 3, 2009 - 12:22

Both semi finals were scheduled back to back and the seats of the Centre Court were packed when the first match started.

First was Elena Dementieva vs. Serena Williams with S.Williams being the favorite. We were in for a nice a surprise and about to watch the best match of the tournament so far.

Dementieva had improved her serve overnight and managed to find a special stroke when she had to go into second serve that left S.Williams without reply. Serena, on the other hand, made more errors than in the quarter finals, all in all 5 double faults vs. 0 and 28 unforced errors to 7. The first set was well-balanced and thus ended in a tie-break. Both players added a few notches to their volume, yet I still didn’t find it extremely disturbing.

(photo EPA/S.Suki)

The first set went to Dementieva. Serena started strongly in the second set, leading with 2:0. Dementieva managed a re-break and quite soon Serena had to serve against a match ball. Dementieva came very close to taking this set and match home. She made one or two mistakes; Serena answered with one or two strokes of genius and won this set instead.

(photo Reuters/T.Melville)

My first note for this third set reads like this “nicely formed six pack below a soaked through jersey”. This was just another confirmation that the commentators were right by calling Dementieva the best athlete of the remaining four.

The third set was a thriller; if this had been the second set we would have seen another tie-break. According to rules, the third set has to be played until one leads with a difference of two games.

After 2 hrs 48 mins Serena served for match ball and won, won the point, the set and the match.

(Photo Getty Images/P.Gilham)

There were phases throughout the match when I had honestly hoped for Dementieva to win; those were the phases she was playing flawlessly. What also makes her very likeable (despite the six pack and the nicely formed shoulders) is, how she showed her despair and frustration. She didn’t freak out, scream around or smash her racket, she showed it silently.

(photo EPA/G.Penny)

It was another hot day in Wimbledon and many viewers left the court, to freshen up, get some air and shade and took their time coming back.

The second match started with many of the seats still empty. I’m sure those tickets weren’t cheap and I would have made my way back quickly, to see any point of that second semi-finale.

Venus Williams destroyed Dinara Safina. After a felt second Venus lead 5:0, in this case even 5:love, meaning Safina didn’t score any point. Her first points and this applies to most of the points she made where results of mistakes by Venus.

(photo Getty Images/I.Walton)

Safina has one of the slowest serves ever, quoting the commentators “she stays within the limits of swiss highways”. While Venus repeated the fasted serve of the tournament with 124 mph (199,5 km/h), Safina was once or twice serving with 72 mph (115 km/h).

Safina managed to score some points in the second set, even winning one game. She didn’t find any approach to seriously improve her situation.

(photo Getty Images/I.Walton)

After only 51 mins it was point, set and match for Venus (6:0, 6:1)

When being asked directly after the match if she had expected this being so easy, Venus gave a diplomatically non-answer “Safina showed the most stable performance over the last 12 months, she is so talented.”

So far it’s Venus Williams who showed the best performance in this tournament, she hardly makes any unforced errors and double faults, has the fastest serve and she’s extremely likeable.

(photo Getty Images/I.Walton)

For the statisticians

Elena Dementieva (ranking 4^th on the WTA list) never made it into a finale of a grand slam tournament, though she never played a better semi-finale against Serena Williams than this one.

While Venus Williams showed the fastest serve of this tournament and still holds the world record, she’s followed closely by her sister Serena and also German Sabine Lisicki.

Read previous articles on Wimbledon 2009 here, here and here.