Thursday, 5 July 2012

Williams Serenely into Seventh Final

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Serena Williams will take on Agnieszka Radwanska in the final of the ladies' singles at Wimbledon after both secured straight sets victories on Thursday.

Williams was at her powerful best as she brushed aside world number two Victoria Azarenka 6-3 7-6 to reach her seventh Wimbledon final.

And Radwanska advanced to her maiden grand slam final with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Angelique Kerber at Wimbledon.

Williams was magnificent in the first set against the Australian Open champion, smashing eight aces and 20 winners with Azarenka unable to live with her despite only two unforced errors.

The four-time champion gradually ate into the Belarusian's serve, taking it to three deuces in the sixth game and breaking it in the eighth.

She brought up two break points with a series of punishing winners from the baseline and when Azarenka brought her in on a drop shot, she cashed in the first of them with a backhand around the net before holding for the set.

The second set was a much tighter affair with Azarenka using one of only two break points she had all match to bring it back on level terms in the sixth game after Williams had earlier broken to take a 3-1 lead.

It went to a tie-break where Williams proved just the stronger, taking it 7-5 after she was helped along the way by a couple of unforced errors from Azarenka.

However, the telling stat was the 24 aces sent down by Williams, beating her own record by one, while taking her tally to 85 in the tournament.

"I'm so excited, I really wanted this," she said. "Vic is a great player, she played really well and I got tight at times in the second set, just looking too far ahead and getting excited.

"It got so close in that second set. I'm just happy to have got through that tie-break."

Earlier, third seed Radwanska recovered from dropping her serve early on to dominate the remainder of her match against the German.

She broke eighth seed Kerber twice on the way to taking the first set in 29 minutes, helped by a string of errors from the German's racquet.

Radwanska broke again in the fifth game of the second set after Kerber sent a cross-court backhand wide and then found the net on the next point.

And Radwanska remained resolute on her own serve to close out the win in one hour and 10 minutes, becoming the first Pole to reach a Wimbledon singles final since Jadwiga Jedrzejowska in 1937.

"I played really well today," said Radwanska, who was Wimbledon junior champion in 2005 and will become world number one for the first time if she wins on Saturday. "I think we were both a little nervous at the beginning.

"This is what I was dreaming of since I was a kid. It's everyone's dream to play tennis in a grand slam final."


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