An Africa Giant Serena Williams journey to her 8th Wimbledon title, defeats Alison Riske. The 7-time Wimbledon champion beats Alison Riske 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the final four at the All England Club. She battled past American compatriot Alison Riske despite a sluggish performance to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion beat Riske 6-4 4-6 6-3 to set up a last four meeting with Czech Barbora Strycova, who defeated Britain’s Johanna Konta.
Williams is chasing her eighth Wimbledon title and her first Grand Slam title since January 2017.
Andy Murray and Serena Williams wow Wimbledon again in mix double
Murray and Williams speak. “We’re getting in the groove of things. We’re starting to feel the rhythm,” beams Serena Williams. “I’m having a blast. It’s a great atmosphere playing out there with Andy.”
Murray praises his partner: “She returned brilliantly, clean winners a lot of the time, making my job easy but I was missing on the break points. If she keeps returning like that we’ll have a good chance. Doubles is good for the reflexes and movement. Once we’re finished here, hopefully on Sunday, I’ll get back to singles and see how that goes.” He finishes by saying: “She’s the boss.” She certainly is. What a player.
“It was really satisfying,” the 37-year-old told the BBC.
“I wouldn’t have won that match a couple of weeks ago.
“I’m glad I was able to come through. She was honestly playing amazing, she beat so many great players.
“I was really pumped, it was for a place in the semis at Wimbledon and that doesn’t happen every day. It’s a long, arduous road.”
World number 10 Williams was broken early in the opening set, and looked despondent with Riske – who beat world number one Ashleigh Barty in the fourth round – not allowing her to settle.
The seven-time Wimbledon champion – who was fined $10,000 (£7,988) on Monday for damaging one of the Wimbledon courts with her racquet – broke back to level the scores at 3-3, but that was only just the beginning.
Riske immediately broke Williams again, only to lose her own serve once more, before Williams went on to break her decisively on her second set point to take the opener 6-4.
The second set, however, proved the polar opposite, staying on serve until Riske broke her opponent to go 5-4 up before serving out to love to seal a set in which Williams made 10 unforced errors.
But, having been broken immediately in the deciding set, Williams responded in perfect fashion, winning three consecutive games, only to lose her serve once again.
Helped by Riske’s five double faults, Williams went a break up at 5-3, before serving out the match in two hours three minutes.
Serena’s shots are intense and has helped her win Grand Slams 7 times. She is also an overcomer, despite her knee injury she is not stopped.
Some people would argue that winning her will simply mean lots of free points or someone extraordinarily athletic.
Have a story? share here AfricaGiant Story Hub
Africa Giant is a platform where Africans share their story on talent, achievements, culture, economy and more and together we can tell the original Africa story.
