Right! Time now to get on with my coverage of the 2016 Wimbledon championships and in this post I will look at how the ladies semi finals matches went. So without further ado let's take a look.....
LADIES SEMI FINALS
Right first up we had Serena Williams who took on the unseeded Elena Vesnina in their semi final encounter which on paper looked to be a doddle for Serena as she lead their head to head 4-0 and had never lost a set to the Russian. And unfortunately for Vesnina that stat was not about to change in the match as she managed only two games in the first set as Serena dominated her with her power game which Vesnina had no answer for. And in the 2nd set things got even worse for the Russian as Serena went from strength to strength and she handed Vesnina a bagel to end her tournament and Serena sped into the Wimbledon final in only 48 minutes with an emphatic 6-2, 6-0 victory.
Well this was hardly a match infact it was more of a warm up as Serena couldn't have been handed an easier opponent to play as she piledrived her way through poor Elena who had no answer at all to her. And this really sees Serena once again in a strong position to equal Stefi Graff's record of 22 major titles which is something since last year's Wimbledon title she has been unable to do. However the grass courts suit Serena's game better than on any other surface so for her sake that might hopefully help her get over that hurdle. However this will all depend on the outcome of the next match which I will look at...
And that match was between Venus Williams and the reigning Australian open champion, Angelique Kerber which promised to be a bit more competitive than the first match. And to an extent the match itself was as even though Kerber went a break up in the first set, Venus broke back early on but as the set progressed Kerber broke again to grab the opening set. In the 2nd set it was more of the same as Kerber got the early break but Venus managed to keep with her up until 5-4 where Kerber managed to serve it out for her first Wimbledon final with a 6-4, 6-4 win.
This was not too bad a match but it was also quite short and maybe not as competitive as we might have hoped for as it was only 1 hour and 12 minutes and combined that with Serena's match there was only two hours of play in total for the whole day! But regardless of that though the match did feature some good points from both players and Kerber to her credit put in a solid performance to reach her first Wimbledon final and defeat Venus although I'm sure Venus will be disappointed she wasn't able to set up the all Williams sisters finale.
FINAL PREDICTION
So this sets up the ladies final between Angelique Kerber and Serena Williams so it all begs the question: who is going to win???? Well.....this time I have to go for Serena as grass is her most preferred surface and in this tournament she has been playing alot better despite that one tough match she had against Christine McHale in the 2nd round, she has went from strength to strength. And Serena herself said she has felt calmer and more confident at this tournament than in the previous slams so far so this should be a good omen for her.
And another good thing for Serena is that by reaching the final she has been able to secure her World No.1 ranking because if she was beaten before the final then there would be a strong chance that Kerber would replace at the top spot in the rankings. Kerber herself however will raise up the rankings to the No.2 spot again like she did earlier this year when she won the Aussie open regardless of her result in the final.
However her opponent, Angelique Kerber will also be feeling pretty confident too as she has managed to reach the final without even dropping a set, which is very impressive in itself and she will prove to be a danger for Serena in the match no doubt as Kerber is a fast, athletic mover and she has quite a bit of firepower on her return game. The problem for Kerber however is that her serve isn't that powerful and she also has a slow second serve, which Serena will look to capitalise on and that is where Kerber will be vulnerable especially on grass. However Kerber might still be able to take advantage of Serena if her nerves come into play she might yet again come up 2nd best.
So as for my final prediction I think that Serena will win this match but again it should be pretty close and it might either be two tight sets or maybe three sets but whichever way it goes I think the World No.1 will come out on top.
Right! So that's it for the ladies matches and I will be back soon with the men's semi finals and how they went.
See you soon....
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