So despite announcing that she would retire after these Olympics, when the end came, the 36-year-old German was never going to go gently into that good night. Instead, Kerber did what she has always done: she gave everything, ran from first ball to last, conjured improbable angles at full stretch. Crouching low to the court in signature fashion, she absorbed and redirected the ferocious firepower of Qinwen Zheng, the Chinese world No 7, confounding an opponent 15 years her junior with changes of pace, spin and height.

And when none of that proved quite enough, and she had blown a 4-1 lead in the decider and found herself three match points down in the last tiebreak of her career, Kerber produced a magnificent final flourish. She defiantly drilled an untouchable forehand return down the line to save one match point. She pulled Zheng from corner to corner before flicking an audacious cross-court winner to fend off another. And then, as a cagey 19-shot rally drained the air from her already burning lungs, Kerber opened her shoulders and found the baseline with the sweetest of backhands, levelling the score once again. It was the perfect vignette of her unique style, a counterpuncher with a deadly southpaw edge, as happy throwing up moonballs as lasering geometry-defying forehands at full pelt.

But Zheng too has something of the very best about her. The 21-year-old reached her first major final six months ago at the Australian Open, and her response spoke of even bigger things to come. Zheng may never play a more courageous, clear-headed drop shot than the one she produced to bring up a fourth match point. She would not be denied again. The final shot of Kerber’s career was a forehand that nosedived into the net, confirm a 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) defeat.

There are worse ways to go than in a final-set tiebreak. Even so, it was an incongruous ending. In one way, the moment belonged to Kerber. Yet there was undeniable power in the sight of a tearful Zheng falling to the clay in celebration, overwhelmed by the enormity of becoming only the second Chinese player to reach an Olympic semi-final. Kerber knows as well as anyone what such moments feel like. But she has of late become increasingly familiar with the sting of defeat. Having arrived in Paris off the back of five straight losses, her run to the quarter-finals – the first time she has reached that stage of a tournament in two years – felt touched by magic. It was, as she acknowledged, a good time to stop.

“There are a lot of emotions,” said Kerber, who defeated Naomi Osaka, Jaqueline Cristian and Leylah Fernandez to make the last eight. “I gave everything I could on court, and I think this is what counts for me. Especially coming here, playing great matches, feeling that I can still play with the top players and having this decision in my hands, to have no injuries.

“I cannot stop better than here, playing for your country, playing on [Court Philippe] Chatrier, such a great crowd, and I just tried my best.”

Throughout a distinguished career, Kerber rarely gave less. A late developer in tennis terms, the German offered a first hint of things to come in 2011, when she broke a sequence of four straight first-round defeats at grand slam level with a run to the US Open semi-finals while ranked 92 in the world. Kerber reached the same stage at Wimbledon the following year, hard on the heels of a last-eight finish at the French Open. But although she became a fixture in the top 10, three relatively lean seasons at the majors followed, prompting her to re-evaluate her game and career. Kerber cleaned up her diet, worked hard to improve her second serve – always the most vulnerable aspect of her game, given that she is a natural right-hander – and sought the counsel of her celebrated compatriot Steffi Graf.

At the start of 2016, it all came together in the most improbable fashion at the Australian Open, where Kerber, now 28, survived a match point in the opening round against Misaki Doi of Japan and went on to win her first grand slam title the hard way, defeating Serena Williams in the final. 

The belief she took from that win would underpin a historic season. A run to the Wimbledon final, where Williams exacted revenge for her defeat in Melbourne, was followed by an Olympic silver medal in Rio de Janeiro, where Kerber was upset in the final by the unseeded Monica Puig. More was to come at the US Open, where the German recovered from a break down in the final set against Karolina Pliskova to win the title and cement her rise to world No 1, the oldest woman ever to claim that distinction for the first time. A season that brought 63 victories would end with another career milestone at the WTA Finals in Singapore, where she finished runner-up to Dominika Cibulková.

It was a tough act to follow, but Kerber came close in 2018, reaching the last four in Melbourne, the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, and finally winning Wimbledon, the title she had coveted since childhood. At 30 years old, it was her crowning achievement.

“Winning here, it’s forever,” said Kerber. “Nobody can take the title away from me now.”

Five years later, however, her priorities were forever altered by the birth of her daughter, Liana. Kerber’s appetite for the sport remained intact, but she no longer saw herself simply as a tennis player; sport had become secondary.

“I still love tennis, but first and foremost I’m a mother with my whole heart, and it’s a real joy,” said Kerber. “There’s a little person in my life that is far more important than tennis.”

That being the case, what better place to finish than at the Olympics, where her performances – a quarter-final at London 2012, a final in Rio de Janeiro four years later, and now another last-eight appearance in Paris – have reflected the different phases of her career. Kerber acknowledged that pattern in her retirement announcement, which stands as a fitting valedictory statement.

“I will never forget Paris 2024, because it will be my last professional tournament as a tennis player,” wrote Kerber. “And whereas this might actually be the right decision, it will never feel that way. Simply because I love the sport with all my heart, and I’m thankful for the memories and opportunities it has given me.

“The Olympics I’ve participated in so far have been more than just competitions, as they represent different chapters of my life as a tennis player: the climb, the peak… and now the finish line.”

To the very last, Kerber never stopped sprinting for that line.

The post Angelique Kerber, farewell – you were one of a kind appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

“We can reveal exclusively here that Rafa will be back,” Tiley told the Australian broadcaster Nine. “He’s been off for most of the year and, in talking to him over the last few days, he confirmed he will be back, which we’re really excited about, the champion of 2022. That’s awesome.”

Nadal, whose haul of 22 majors includes two Australian Open titles, has not played since January, when he tore a hip flexor muscle during a second-round defeat to Mackenzie McDonald at Melbourne Park. The 37-year-old underwent surgery on the problem in early June, shortly after announcing that he will probably retire after next season, and recently offered a guarded assessment of his future, suggesting he would not be in a position to assess his plans until mid-November.

That stance was echoed by Benito Pérez-Barbadillo, Nadal’s communications manager, who confirmed that, despite Tiley’s statement to the contrary, no date has been set for his client’s comeback.

“I can confirm to you that Rafa is practising, as everyone saw on his last post on Instagram,” Pérez-Barbadillo told Reuters. “But there is no date confirmed, scheduled or programmed yet for his comeback.”

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic has responded to comments made by Nadal about their rivalry last month. In a Spanish television interview, the Spaniard suggested Djokovic would have been frustrated had he not been able to overtake him on the grand slam leaderboard. Nadal won the most recent of his 22 titles at last summer’s French Open, since when Djokovic has won a seventh Wimbledon title, a 10th Australian Open, a third French Open and a fourth US Open crown to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 grand slams.

“For Novak, it is more intense,” Nadal told Movistar+. “To him, it would have been more frustrating not to get [the men’s record]. Maybe that’s why he’s achieved it.”

Djokovic sensibly sidestepped a potential war of words, emphasising his respect for the Spaniard while making it plain that he did not share his rival’s view. 

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and how they interpret someone else in that context,” said Djokovic. “That’s all I can say. Rafa is a great champion, I greatly appreciate and respect him as a champion, as my biggest rival, as a man and a tennis player who has largely participated in shaping my game and the results I have achieved. 

“I have no intention in any way to talk in a negative context about him or Roger Federer, because my respect outweighs perhaps some negative opinions about them. That is his opinion – with which, of course, I do not agree. I have my opinion, but I won’t share it because I don’t want to deepen the topic. There is no need for that at all.”

Nadal aside, Tiley also predicted the return of a trio of former women’s champions at Melbourne Park, with Naomi Osaka, Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki all trailed to appear. Osaka gave birth to her first daughter, Shai, in July, while Kerber announced the birth of her first child, Liana, in February. Wozniacki, meanwhile, reached the fourth round of the US Open after returning to the tour this summer for the first time in three years. 

“We’ll welcome them and their families back to Melbourne with open arms,” said Tiley, “and can’t wait to see what their next chapter brings.”

The Australian Open will be held over 15 days in 024 as part of an effort to reduce the number of late finishes. The problem was epitomised by Andy Murray’s epic five-set win over Thanasi Kokkinakkis this year, which raged for five hours and 45 minutes before finally ending at 4.05am, a situation that Murray branded a “farce”. Tiley is hopeful that, by reducing the number of day matches from three to two, the new Sunday start will guarantee the evening session commences on time.

“We’ve listened to feedback from players and fans and are excited to deliver a solution to minimise late finishes while continuing to provide a fair and equitable schedule on the stadium courts,” said Tiley. “The additional day will achieve this, benefiting scheduling for fans and players alike.”

The post Nadal tipped for Australian Open return as Djokovic hits back appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Kerber has not have enjoyed the best start to the year, losing in the opening round of her only two tournaments, but the 34-year-old remains a wily and determined competitor, and in the early stages here she caused the third seed all manner of problems. The German had Swiatek on the back foot from the opening game, when she threw up a perfectly measured lob to secure the first break of the afternoon, and kept her there throughout the early stages with a combination of bold ball-striking and relentless physical and mental intensity.

Much has been made of Swiatek’s increased aggression under new coach Tomasz Witkorowski, who has encouraged his young charge to hit through the ball rather than relying purely on the more attritional, topspin-heavy game that underpinned her breakthrough triumph at the French Open. Yet it quickly became apparent that Kerber – unsurprisingly, for a player who has twice beaten Serena Williams in grand slam finals – was undaunted by her opponent’s power, which she not only absorbed but frequently sent back with interest.

The veteran’s assurance created doubt in Swiatek’s mind, leaving her uncertain whether to stick or twist.

“It was really hard playing against her,” admitted Swiatek, for whom victory prolonged a winning streak that now stands at eight matches following her title run in Doha last month. “She’s such an experienced player. It’s never easy. Truth be told, I wasn’t really sure what my tactics should be, if I should be more aggressive or play a more patient game. But at the end I think I made the right decisions [at the] right time, in the right moments of the match.”

Swiatek’s battle-hardened response to a potentially pivotal moment of crisis supported that analysis. Having faded in the second set as the demands of a baseline duel conducted in scorching heat began to tell, Kerber edged ahead again in the fifth game of the decider, exhibiting a virtuoso command of rhythm and tempo to convert the second of two break points.

The manner in which Kerber achieved the breakthrough had the feel of a turning point. First the German went high, lofting a moonball return deep to the baseline. Then she went slow, soaking up a barrage of drives to either corner, killing the pace with a floated slice, refusing to take Swiatek’s high-octane bait. Finally came the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it coup de grâce, a blazing backhand winner delivered into the space created by a redirected forehand.

Swiatek, who has practised with Kerber but never previously faced her on the match court, admitted that she had been unprepared for such guile. 

“You never know what you’re going to get on court, so you have to adjust and you have to really observe what your opponent is doing,” said the Pole, who broke back immediately and then closed out the contest with a devastating flurry of winners that included three aces in two service games.  

“I thought that Angie played much different than she played in practice with me, [than] what I was expecting. For sure, she wanted me to be maybe distracted, like not sure of what’s going on. She didn’t play that high ball in our practice. I felt like she wanted to use her experience and kind of trick me. 

“But, I mean, I like that because it’s like a new experience for me. You’re not going to get that from many players, because not many players have been on tour for such a long time.  I’m pretty proud of myself that I could win against such a smart player.”

So she should be. There is a growing sense of completeness about Swiatek, who has left no stone unturned in her quest for improvement. The 20-year-old’s latest victory bore multiple fingerprints, from the attacking mindset encouraged by Witkorowski to the mental toughness instilled by Daria Abramowicz, the psychologist with whom she has been working since 2019, and the physical endurance cultivated by her trainer Maciej Ryszczuk. 

The influence of Abramowicz has been especially apparent in Indian Wells. For the past two seasons, winning the opening set against Swiatek was virtually a guarantee of victory. Clearly that is no longer the case. This was the fifth time in three months that the Pole has come back from a set down – one more than she managed in the previous two years combined. She has become quite the comeback queen.

A naturally emotional character whose tearful defeats at the Tokyo Olympics and WTA Finals last season made for tough viewing, Swiatek has acquired an improved sense of perspective for which, she says, she has Abramowicz to thank.

“I think my work that I’ve been doing with Daria is clicking, basically,” said Swiatek after her win over the Danish teenager Clara Tauson in the previous round. “Mentally, I feel that I have more skills right now to just stay calm and think about solutions, because before I struggled with emotions a little bit. 

“After I lost the first set I wanted to be more pumped up and have more energy and whatever. But right now it’s like more focused, and it’s easier for me to find solutions. Getting pumped up, it’s not going to help you sometimes.

“Usually I’m pretty emotional, so when you have all these emotions coming you kind of feel like your view is not clear. But right now it is much, much clearer for me.

“Before when I was losing, I felt like my whole life is bad and like the base of my existing is suddenly destroyed because I’m losing a tennis match, you know? Right now I have more distance to everything, and I can see clearly. Basically, I’m just more calm and more confident.”

That clarity will be tested again in the quarter-finals, where Swiatek will face the resurgent Madison Keys, the 25th seed from the US, who defeated Britain’s Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-4. 

“It’s going to be a match against a really experienced player who has played so many times here,” said Swiatek of the prospect of facing a player who, like her, reached the last four at January’s Australian Open. “I’ve got to be ready for everything.”

If her progress to this point is anything to go by, she will be.

The post Comeback queen Swiatek battles back to beat Kerber in Indian Wells appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Her latest moment brought another victory that defied the odds as Fernandez, the world No 73, came from behind to reach the US Open quarter-finals at Kerber’s expense, consigning the 33-year-old to a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win that demonstrated, lest there should be doubt, that her shock victory over defending champion Naomi Osaka was no flash in the pan. 

At a set and 4-2 up, Kerber looked to be cruising into the last eight. Having put a sequence of three successive first-round losses at the majors behind her with a run to the Wimbledon semi-finals, and reached the same stage on the hard courts of Cincinnati, Kerber has been in resurgent form of late, and looked poised for another deep run in New York, where she was the champion five years ago. 

But Fernandez, a tenacious lefty with an eye for the angles and an appetite for the fray, is a player cast in the same mould as Kerber. With defeat looming on the eve of her 19th birthday, she roused herself. She bounced, she roared, she smiled; she ignited the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd with her energy and defiance, and discomfited Kerber with the electrifying audacity of her shot-making. The German fended off a set point at 6-5, but ultimately had no answer to the wave of youthful energy coming at her from the opposite side of the net. 

How does Fernandez do it? “Having fun on the court, I think that’s the key to anybody’s success, especially mine,” said the Canadian, who will face Elina Svitolina for a place in the semi-finals after the Ukrainian fifth seed beat Simona Halep in straight sets. 

“If I’m not happy, or I’m putting too much pressure on myself, I start making mistakes and I’m not enjoying myself. But these past few weeks I have been enjoying myself a lot on the tennis court, and that’s been a mindset of mine from the very beginning, [one] that not only my dad but also my mom has been telling me to do so that I can enjoy this life. I chose this profession and I want to enjoy it as much as possible and have fun – [it] is one of the biggest keys that I have.”

Her enjoyment was not shared by Kerber, who saw a 5-1 lead in the second-set tiebreak evaporate and looked physically and emotionally spent by the end. “It was a tough one,” said the 16th seed. “I gave everything I had today. She played an unbelievable match, especially in the third set. Also in the second. I think she played one of the best matches in her career, and she had nothing to lose. She went out there, she played her tennis. She really is going for her winners, and at the end it was just two, three points which decide the match. She took it in her hands.”

Kerber was magnanimous in defeat, hailing the “start of a great career” and acknowledging that Fernandez is “a little bit similar” to her style, albeit playing with a liberty that is the preserve of youth. “I remember the feeling really well,” she said. “I mean, she has no pressure. She’s going out there, she has a loose hand, she’s hitting the ball, and she was going forward. She did a good job. I mean, she was not shaking.”

Kerber added with a rueful smile: “I think [such freedom], it’s just [for] the young people. I wish, but I think it’s playing without completely pressure, it’s – in this position – impossible. But I wish.”

Fernandez, meanwhile, will just keep swinging. “I think from a very young age, I’m just a happy-go-lucky girl. I never really take things too seriously or some things too hard. I just have fun on anything and everything that I do.”

Fun was in short supply in the latter stages of Barbora Krejcikova’s 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) win over Garbiñe Muguruza. In a tense conclusion to the match, Muguruza recovered from 4-0 down in the second set, missed three set points and was leading 6-5 when Krejcikova, who said she was feeling unwell, left the court for a nine-minute medical timeout.

The French Open champion returned to hold to love, but infuriated Muguruza with her slow play in the tiebreak, trudging over to the side of the court to towel off as the Spaniard waited to serve. Muguruza made her feelings plain as the pair shook hands, ignoring her opponent’s apology as she branded the Czech “so unprofessional”.

“I don’t really want to talk about this,” Muguruza told the press afterwards. “I’ll let you guys judge what you think … I think, between players, you know a little bit how to behave in certain moments and, yeah, I wasn’t very happy at the end of the match.”

Krejcikova, who will play second seed Aryna Sabalenka for a place in the semi-finals after the Belarusian beat her doubles partner Elise Mertens 6-4, 6-1, did not perform press duties afterwards, but released a statement through the USTA. 

“Garbiñe started to raise her level and I was expecting that,” said Krejcikova. “At the end, I was really struggling and I feel really bad right now. I don’t really know what happened, but I couldn’t breathe. I started to feel dizzy, and the whole world was shaking. It never happened to me before.”

The post Fernandez stuns Kerber to make US Open last eight appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Garbiñe Muguruza faced just such an opponent in Victoria Azarenka, and in winning a contest of brutal power and intensity she might finally have shattered whatever glass ceiling it is that has previously prevented her from doing herself justice at the US Open.

The Spaniard, who has won Roland Garros and Wimbledon and reached the Australian Open final, has never previously been beyond the fourth round at Flushing Meadows, but a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Azarenka, a fellow former No 1 and a player with three finals in New York to her name, could just change that.

Muguruza’s level fluctuated – her serve, unplayable at times in the first set, went off the boil dramatically in the second – but her commitment to the task never wavered as she lifted her game at the key moments, most notably at the business end of the first and third sets, to beat Azarenka at her own game.

“I started very well, got that first set,” said Muguruza, who had never previously won a match in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. “I feel like in the second set I lost my momentum a little bit. She also came up with great shots. In the third set I managed just to be there again and go for the match a little bit. When you face these types of opponents you cannot wait, you have to go to get the win. I felt I did it. I’m happy that it’s actually my first Arthur Ashe win, after almost 10 years. It’s kind of funny.”

Muguruza’s amusement is unlikely to be shared by her opponent. Having fought back brilliantly to stem a tide of irresistible shot-making from Muguruza towards the end of the first set, Azarenka cut an increasingly frustrated figure in the decider, taking out her frustration on her racket after driving a backhand wide to drop serve in an epic sixth game that swung back and forth over multiple deuces. Azarenka arrived in New York with points to defend after reaching last year’s final, where she was beaten by Naomi Osaka, and her ranking is likely to plummet to outside the top 30 from her current position of 19th. But she can take consolation from a superb contribution to a match that ranks among the best of the tournament so far. 

As for Muguruza, there is a momentum gathering around the Spaniard that bodes well for her prospects of finally making a deep run in New York. She has survived three tough matches to make the second week, clinching two tiebreaks to see off Donna Vekic and recording a first win in four attempts over Germany’s Andrea Petkovic prior to facing Azarenka, and seems more at peace with the perpetual hubbub of the city than in previous years.

“Negativity was more than positivity in the previous years,” said Muguruza, reflecting on a tournament that ought to be a happy hunting ground, given her preference for hard courts. “This year, I don’t know, I just prepared well and said, ‘Hey, at some point it’s going to change, this might be the year. I feel also, having gone through those couple of first tough matches gave me the feeling that, ‘Hey, I can do well here.’ I think going through the first rounds always gives you that confidence. In the previous years, I didn’t manage to go through those opening rounds.”

Muguruza next faces Barbora Krejcikova, the eighth seed and French Open champion, who has yet to drop a set on her maiden appearance in the main draw of the singles. The pair met recently in Cincinnati, where the Czech avenged a defeat in the Dubai final five months ago, but in this mood Muguruza need fear no one.

After an early exchange of breaks, Muguruza and Azarenka played first-strike tennis of the highest order, finding corners and painting lines as they drilled their groundstrokes with relentless power and precision, punishing the slightest sign of hesitation or lapse in quality with dead-eyed ruthlessness. It was nip and tuck until the eight game, when Muguruza suddenly hit a purple patch. Having held to love with one of five first-set aces, Muguruza took control of Azarenka’s next service game with a sequence of returns that stretched Azarenka’s powers of retrieval beyond breaking point.

A serving masterclass followed, Muguruza showcasing her variety with stinging deliveries wide, down the centre and into the body to bring up three set points. An ace sealed the set and, by the time she slammed two consecutive backhand winners to leave Azarenka comtemplating a 0-30 deficit in the opening game of the second set, Muguruza had won 14 out of the previous 15 points.

Without warning, however, the wheels came off. Azarenka fought her way out of trouble to hold, and in the next game a foot fault at 0-15 proved costly for Muguruza, the Belarusian pouncing on a short second serve to drill a crosscourt backhand return for a winner. A double fault followed from Muguruza, and when she landed herself in further trouble two games later with another foot fault, falling a double break behind, not even a faltering attempt to serve out the set at 5-1 could stall Azarenka for long.

If the second set was a more uneven affair than the first, the decider marked a return to the ferocious, near-flawless power play of the initial exchanges. Both players staved off early break points, but when Muguruza carried the momentum from an emphatic hold into the sixth game, fighting her way to a break after several deuces, there was to be no way back for Azarenka. Serving to stay in the match at 2-5, the Belarusian double-faulted to bring an electrifying contest to an anticlimactic conclusion.

Elsewhere, Simona Halep moved into the second week with a three-set victory over French Open quarter-finalist Elena Rybakina. Halep lost the opening three games of a seesaw opening set, fighting back from 3-5 down and saving four set points before finally converting her seventh set point to win a 20-point tiebreak. Rybakina, the 19th seed, hit back to level the match and led by a break in the decider before Halep recovered to see out a 7-6 (11-9), 4-6, 6-3 victory.

“It’s nice to be back in the second week of the US Open after five years,” said Halep, whose best result at Flushing Meadows came in 2015, when she reached the semi-finals. “[In] this match, every point was important, and I knew that I have to fight for every single point, because she never gives up. She showed that she’s very strong mentally, very stable emotionally.”

Halep will play Elina Svitolina in the last 16 after the Ukrainian fifth seed extended her winning streak to eight matches with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Daria Kasatkina of Russia. “I think it was a very solid performance mentally and physically, with my tennis as well,” said Svitolina, the champion in Chicago last week. “I was very composed.”

Angelique Kerber continued her recent resurgence, moving into the last 16 with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 win over fellow former champion Sloane Stephens. The former world No 1 could face the defending champion Naomi Osaka in the next round.

“Before you walk on court, you know of course that the last few matches you lost,” said Kerber after what was only her second win in seven meetings with Stephens. “For me it was really important to have the mentality that I really want to win the match, and going there to fight for every ball. I think that was for me the key to turn around the match, especially after the first set.”

The post Muguruza beats Azarenka to advance at US Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Not everything was identical. Whereas Barty initially struggled on serve when she last faced Kerber, here she was imperious, finding the court with 71% of her first deliveries to cruise through the opening set. Kerber began in determined fashion, but with Barty bearing down on her second serve from the outset, it was all she could do to keep pace with the Australian. The pressure told as early as the sixth game, where Barty showcased her variety to seize a love break, confounding Kerber with a skidding slice backhand, rolling a crosscourt forehand for a winner, and sealing the game with an audacious drop shot off the German’s second serve. 

From there, Kerber’s game temporarily unravelled. Barty held commandingly to consolidate her advantage, and in the next game Kerber double-faulted to hand the top seed three set points. A couple of loose returns briefly delayed the inevitable, but by the time Barty fired a backhand pass to wrap up the set, Kerber had won only three points since conceding the first break of the match. She was soon in further trouble as Barty opened the second set with an exquisite half-volley winner, securing a dominant hold, before Kerber dropped serve for a third time in succession, a missed forehand giving Barty her sixth game in a row. 

Things looked bleak for Kerber, but the former Wimbledon, Australian and US Open champion is nothing if not tenacious. Just as she had done on Centre Court last month, Kerber kept fighting, earning her first break point of the match with a precise backhand winner down the line. Some typically gritty retrieving from Kerber kept her in the next point just long enough for Barty to miss a highly makeable drop shot, and with Kerber now back on level terms – and playing with increasing aggression – there was a rare show of frustration from the Wimbledon champion a couple of games later as she missed a forehand to give Kerber the platform for a second break. But having won three successive games to lead 3-2, Kerber immediately relinquished the momentum with a loose service game, setting the scene for a combative final phase.

“I knew that Angie was lifting and I needed to go with her, and not being able to execute the points when I had set them up the way that I wanted to was frustrating,” said Barty, who is through to her sixth final of the year. “Being able to get that momentum back with the break straight away, then it was a bit of a tug of war. I felt like I was able to build pressure on Angie’s games, but we both did a good job of getting out of some tough holds late in that second set.

Barty saved a break point to hold for 4-3, a penetrating first serve laying the groundwork for a booming off forehand, and only some dogged persistence from Kerber kept her alive as she served to stay in the match for the first time a couple of games later. Serving to reach a tiebreak, as she had done at Wimbledon, Kerber was unable to repeat the feat, a pair of wayward forehands proving costly.     

“It’s never, ever a walk in the park against Angie, she’s an exceptional competitor and I think early on in that second set she lifted, she went to another gear, and it took me a few games to go with her,” said Barty. “I think that was the change, she was able to lift her game, and even though there were some close games, she won the big points early in the second set, so I’m glad that I was able to find a way through. 

“I had to find the balance of being aggressive and not getting too passive and letting Angie dictate. She moves exceptionally well and puts the balls in difficult positions. I felt like when I was able to control the court, I did a better job. I think in the games I got broken, she just saw too many second serves and was able to be assertive.”

In Teichmann, Barty will face an unfamiliar opponent. The pair have never played each other before but, having beaten Naomi Osaka, the reigning US and Australian Open champion, as well as the Olympic champion Belinda Bencic and Wimbledon finalist Pliskova, Teichmann will take some stopping. Like Camila Giorgi, who was ranked 71st before storming to victory in Montreal last week, the 76th-ranked Swiss arrives in the biggest final of her career with serious momentum behind her.

Teichmann was certainly too good for Pliskova, punishing the fifth-seeded Czech’s second serve as she won five games in a row to take the opening set. The Swiss showed impressive resilience to stave off three break points in the sixth game of the second and, although an exchange of breaks followed, Teichmann broke Pliskova again in the ninth game before serving out the match at the first time of asking.

“When I ask my coaches what they think of me, they always say, ‘You’re just an unexpected person, you do random things’ – so I guess that’s one of them,” joked Teichmann at courtside. “I’m feeling really good here. I like the conditions, I’m serving good, moving well; when I can, I attack when I can’t, I just defend. I’m just feeling it, I cannot even describe it.”

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Having fought her way back into a match in which she had missed countless early opportunities, Angelique Kerber had been slowly reeled in by Ashleigh Barty. A 5-2 lead had been wiped out and now Barty, already one set to the good, was a point away from levelling the second. Kerber launched herself at a forehand return, sending the ball back flat and deep, but Barty crouched low on the grass, using the strength in her legs to absorb the German’s power and redirect the ball down the line for a winner. 

It was a dagger through the heart for Kerber, precisely the kind of bold, improvised shot that not so long ago carried the German to three grand slam titles and the world No 1 ranking, and it signalled the beginning of the end for her attempt to reach a third Wimbledon final. Top dog status belongs to Barty now, and having out-Kerbered Kerber the top seed held firm to become the first Australian woman to reach the final since her friend and mentor Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980.

How Barty wanted this 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) victory. The humble Australian rarely makes public declarations about her ambitions, but Wimbledon is the prize she covets above all others and she has not been afraid to say so. The design of her outfit this year pays tribute to the scallop-hemmed dress worn by Goolagong Cawley when she won the first of her two titles at the All England Club, but that sartorial salute would pale into insignificance were she to mark the occasion with a first Wimbledon crown, a decade after she won the junior title in SW19.

“This is incredible,” said Barty, who will face Karolina Pliskova in Saturday’s final after the Czech beat Aryna Sabalenka 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. “This is close to as good a match as I will ever play. Angie definitely brought the best out of me today and it was a hell of a match right from the first ball and I knew it was going to have to be that good just to compete with her, so I’m incredibly proud of myself and my team. Now I get a chance on Saturday to try and live out a total dream.”

As Serena Williams, Petra Kvitova and Garbiñe Muguruza can attest, it has not been a good Wimbledon for former champions. But experience still counts for something at the All England Club and Kerber, who won the title against Serena Williams three years ago after losing to the American in the 2016 final, is one of the finest grass-courters of her generation. The German, seeded 25th, has struggled since reaching that pinnacle, but she reached the last four with 10 consecutive wins under her belt after winning the title in Bad Homburg in the build-up to Wimbledon. Barty knew she would have her work cut out against a player who, as she remarked beforehand, “doesn’t give you cheapies”.

From the outset, the former French Open champion used her power and variety to keep Kerber off balance, limiting her counter-punching opponent’s opportunities to create the acute angles on which she thrives. A curious first set was dominated by Barty despite her repeated struggles on serve. The tone was set as early as the first game, where the Australian opened with a double fault and was forced to save two break points before clawing her way back with some powerful serving and big forehands. Barty broke in the next game, firing a precise forehand winner down the line off a Kerber overhead, and from there the first-set momentum was firmly with the Australian. Time and again, Kerber made early inroads in her opponent’s service games only to be denied as Barty produced a barrage of big serves and crunching forehands, leavening the mix with some biting sliced backhands and deft drop shots.

The German began the second set in a different key, showing greater urgency and aggression to claim an early break. She served for the set at 5-3 but was broken to love, Barty finding the baseline with an overhead before sealing the game with a whipped forehand pass. Kerber clung on to force a tiebreak but quickly fell 6-0 behind, finally succumbing on the fourth match point as Barty, who struck 38 winners in all, saluted an unforgettable victory. 

“She is a really intelligent player and she knows how to play also with her slice, and then she’s going forward with her forehand,” said Kerber. “She really served well today. You see that she has a lot of confidence, that she played a lot of big matches, that she’s the No 1 player in the world right now. But for me it was important to give everything I had on court. She had always, like in the important moment, the better answer.”

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Sabalenka has struggled until now to translate her dominant form on the WTA Tour into success at the grand slams, but this was a performance of real conviction. Having progressed to the quarter-finals of a major for the first time with a three-set victory over Elena Rybakina, Sabalenka played with the freedom and belief of a player born for the big stage. Her forceful hitting from the back of the court denied Jabeur the time to deploy the drop shots and variations of pace and spin that have wreaked such havoc in the lower quarter, while her serve was virtually unplayable at times, Sabalenka winning 83% of the points behind her first delivery. The predicament facing Jabeur was encapsulated by the opening game of the second set, in which she drilled a forehand return winner to earn three break points only for Sabalenka to snuff out the danger with a barrage of penetrating serves and searing groundstrokes.  

“The plan was to be aggressive from the beginning and change the rhythm if I could, because I know she can hit really hard,” said Jabeur. “The thing is, I wasn’t really expecting her to serve well from the beginning to the end. You can have momentum when you serve good, but then you can just make like second serves. But her second serves are also amazing. It was kind of difficult for me to be on the edge all the time.”

Jabeur fought tenaciously, just as she had done in clawing her way back from the loss of the opening set in the previous two rounds, and having been broken early in the second set she quickly got back on level terms. Had she converted a break point at 2-2, the match might even have taken a different turn. But her return teetered on the net tape before falling on her side of the court, and from there Sabalenka was irresistible. It has nonetheless been an unforgettable tournament for Jabeur, who endeared herself to the British public with her shot-making and charisma, and beat a trio of former major champions in Venus Williams, Muguruza and Swiatek to become the first Arab or North African player to make the last eight since Ismail El Shafei in 1974. The Tunisian leaves SW19 with renewed belief that she belongs in the latter stages of slams, and an ever-deepening clarity about how best to deploy her dazzling repertoire of shots.

Sabalenka, meanwhile, can reflect with satisfaction on a performance in which she showed unwavering belief in her game to finally draw a line under a litany of grand slam disappointments. “My best moment so far,” she said. “The only thing I was thinking about was my game and to stay focused and fight for every point and every opportunity I had. It’s surprising, but I didn’t feel that pressure of being in the quarter-finals for the first time. I was enjoying the atmosphere and enjoying my game and just doing everything I could to win the match. It was a great performance for me.

“[Before] I was struggling on the grand slams with all the emotions going through. After every slam I was so disappointed about myself that I can’t handle this pressure. I actually thought that I would never make it to the second week. We worked a lot with my psychologist and with my coach. I’m really happy that here in Wimbledon I’m in the second week, I’m still in the tournament, and I still have this opportunity to win a slam. I will do everything I can to reach my goal.”

If Sabalenka is to achieve that goal, she will first have to get past Pliskova, the eighth seed, who reached her first semi-final at the All England Club with a 6-2, 6-2 demolition of Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland. Pliskova had lost the only previous meeting between the pair, at a Fed Cup match in Lucerne five years ago, but with her serve in fine fettle and her movement sharper than it has ever been on the Wimbledon grass, the Czech had far too much for the 66th-ranked Golubic.

“After not really having many good weeks before Wimbledon, it feels like a dream a bit,” said Pliskova, who has yet to drop a set. “Anyway, I believed at some point I would find my game. I’m just happy it worked out well in these two weeks. Of course, it was my last grand slam missing the semi-final, so I’m happy now I have all of them.”

There was no such good news for Pliskova’s compatriot Karolina Muchova, who was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by former champion Angelique Kerber. The resurgent German, whose confidence was buoyed by a title win on grass last month in Bad Homburg, goes through to her fourth Wimbledon semi-final. She is the only player still standing who has previously reached the last four. “Having, of course, the confidence from the last week, coming here with a title in my bag, gives me also confidence that grass is really my surface,” said Kerber, 33. “I’m coming [back] after a really tough time. I was not playing good the last few months. Now winning last week a tournament at home, now playing well here again, that means a lot to me.”

Kerber will face Ashleigh Barty in the last four after the top seed beat Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1, 6-3 in the first all-Australian quarter-final at the All England Club since Evonne Goolagong defeated Wendy Turnbull in 1980. “Against Ash, I know that I have to play my best tennis,” said Kerber. “She has a lot of confidence right now. She played well. I know that I have to play my own game. I have to just think how to play, be aggressive, and try to take the match more in my hands and go for it.”

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To do so, Barty will need to play a great deal better than she did in her 6-4, 6-3 win over the 89th-ranked Anna Blinkova. It was a strangely subdued display from the top seed, littered with uncharacteristic mistakes and missed opportunities. A nervous start set the tone for a performance that included nine double faults and 33 unforced errors. By the end, you had to wonder whether all the talk of emulating Goolagong Cawley and her legacy was not adding to the pressures facing a player who has yet to provide conclusive evidence that she has recovered from the hip injury that forced her out of the French Open.

Few players are more open in the interview room than Barty, but the Queenslander offered an unusually terse response to an enquiry about whether her struggles on serve might be down to her recent hip problems. “I feel fine, it was just not a great serving day, so certainly not something that I’m going to blow out of proportion,” she said. On the subject of Goolagong Cawley and her legacy, Barty, whose Wimbledon outfit is a tribute to the dress worn by the former champion in 1971, was more forthcoming.

“From when I was quite young, I learnt about the way that she played the game of tennis,” said Barty, who will play the 64th-ranked Czech Katerina Siniakova in round three. “I think probably when I first met Evonne, when I was 13 years old, was when I began to really understand the impact that she had on peoples’ lives outside of tennis. I met her in Brisbane one day when we were talking about her foundation and all of the things that she was doing off the court, and of course that led to more curiosity of how she played the game and to more curiosity of how she’s impacted people since she’s retired, and her legacy that she left after her tennis.

“It’s a legacy of opportunity in my opinion. The way that she approached her tennis and approached her matches here at Wimbledon, it was a courageous stepping into the unknown. There was no one that had done it before her from our heritage, and for her to be able to be the first one to pave that path was really showing that, no matter what anyone says, you can go out there and believe in your dreams.”

Barty’s dreams of a senior Wimbledon title to go with the junior crown she won a decade ago were never seriously threatened by Blinkova, whose energy and enthusiasm were not always matched by the quality of her tennis. The 22-year-old nonetheless displayed admirable composure on her Centre Court debut. Having elected to serve first, Blinkova took time to steady herself between points and refused to be overawed by either the occasion or her feted opponent.

It was the perfect platform to capitalise on a ragged start by Barty, who served three double faults to concede her opening service game. The world No 1 recovered the break immediately but continued to look out of sorts, spraying errors as she allowed Blinkova, herself a former junior Wimbledon finalist, to recover from 0-40 down in the fifth game. Barty would eventually end the set with 18 unforced errors. Her erratic play continued into the second set, where an early break was cancelled out by an eighth double fault before Barty finally took control. 

“It was a tough one, there were a few things that didn’t feel quite right today,” said Barty. “But that’s half the battle in sport, being able to find a way when it’s not feeling all that great. When my back was against the wall today, I was able to bring the good stuff, it just wasn’t quite there all the time.”

It is a feeling that Elina Svitolina, the third seed, will know only too well. The Ukrainian lost her second-round match 6-3, 6-4 against Magda Linette, the 44th-ranked Pole against whom Barty retired at Roland Garros, and afterwards cut a disconsolate figure.

“Mentally, for sure, I need to reset,” said Svitolina, a semi-finalist at the All England Club in 2019. “When you play a grand slam, it is all of the time a lot, different kind of pressures. Sometimes it’s tough to handle, but it is part of the job, it’s part of the grand slam. You have to be strong, try to be good to yourself and try to overcome the fears, the difficulties. Today probably I was not fresh mentally to do that. I have been on the tour for years now and been in different kind of situations. But right now I wouldn’t say it’s very smooth times in my career. For sure, it’s a tough time, but I have been in these situations in my career a few times.”

Svitolina, who was seeded to meet Barty in the semi-finals, becomes the highest-ranked casualty in the women’s singles following the defeat of Sofia Kenin, the fourth seed, who lost to her compatriot Madison Brengle on Wednesday, and fifth seed Bianca Andreescu, who lost in desultory fashion to Alizé Cornet of France, also on the third day. Next up for Linette is Paula Badosa of Spain, the 30th seed, who eased past Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-1. Coco Gauff beat Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-3 on Centre Court and will play Kaja Juvan in round three after the Slovenian defeated Clara Burel, a French qualifier, 6-3, 6-4.

Barbora Krejcikova, the French Open champion, defeated Andrea Petkovic of Germany, 7-5, 6-4, while Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the losing finalist at Roland Garros, eased past Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-3.

Angelique Kerber, the former Wimbledon champion, won an extraordinary match against Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain, who saved a match point in the second set before Kerber prevailed  7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in three hours and 18 minutes.

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How richly Suárez Navarro deserved it. In only her second match since returning to the tour from a successful battle against Hodgkin lymphoma, the Spaniard offered a poignant reminder of the tenacity and richly varied shot-making that have carried her to seven grand slam quarter-finals. As her mother, Maria, memorialised every emotionally-charged moment on her mobile phone, it was hard to believe that only two months have elapsed since Suárez Navarro was given the all-clear by doctors to resume her career.

Suárez Navarro looked to be heading towards a routine defeat when Barty served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. But her elegant, sweeping one-handed backhand has long been one of the great joys of the women’s game, and it was to that wing that Suárez Navarro turned as she raged against the dying of the light with two lavish winning returns to lay the foundations for a break.

It was the opening the Spaniard needed to force a tiebreak and, as the Centre Court crowd warmed to her cause, and errors crept into Barty’s normally reliable game, Suárez Navarro barely put a foot wrong, levelling the match to force a decider. It was an almighty effort, but it came at a cost physically. With Suárez Navarro tiring rapidly, Barty stepped on the accelerator, racing to a 5-0 lead for the loss of just two points.

“In the second set I think I played a really good game, I was enjoying the match, I was trying to do my best. I know what I have to do to win the match, but my body is not the same as two years ago,” said Suárez Navarro. “I felt tired at the end, a lot of emotions also. Not easy, but I really enjoyed [it].

“I think Wimbledon made me a really good gift. I cannot ask for anything else better than this day. One of my last matches here, against Ash, No 1 in the world, Centre Court, with the roof – it was amazing. I really enjoyed everything I passed through. So today I am the most happy player in the tournament, for sure.”

Suárez Navarro, 32, will now continue her farewell tour, competing at the Tokyo Olympics before retiring at the US Open in September – a year later than she had originally planned. Barty, meanwhile, was relieved to get through her first competitive outing since retiring from the French Open with a hip injury. “I had full trust that we’d done absolutely everything that we could, [but] you just never know. To be able to go out there today and play the way that I did was really nice,” said Barty, who will play Anna Blinkova of Russia in round two.

Barty paid fulsome tribute to Suárez Navarro. “She’s a hell of a competitor, a hell of a fighter,” she said. “It was a privilege to be able to share that moment, share that court with her today. I hadn’t had the opportunity to play Carla. It was really special to be able to experience what she can bring from the other side of the court.

“I think all credit goes to her for her resilience and her nature as a competitor, to be able to come back from the adversity that she has, and to be able to have that moment with her was nothing shy of remarkable.

“She deserves nothing but the best. [At the end], I just said to her, ‘It was a pleasure to share the court with you.’ She’s an exceptional person, a great fighter, a great competitor, and very well loved and respected in the locker room. She’s going to be sorely missed.”

Elsewhere, Venus Williams marked her 90th grand slam appearance with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania. The five-time champion will play Ons Jabeur, the 21st seed, in round two after the Tunisian eased past Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-1. But there was heartbreak for Serena Williams, whose bid for a 24th major lasted just seven games. Up against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, ranked 100th, Williams slipped twice before she was forced to retire with a thigh injury with the score at 3-3, 15-15.

Karolina Pliskova, the eighth seed, will play Donna Vekic in round two after battling past Tamara Zidansek, a semi-finalist at the French Open, 7-5, 6-4. Also through is Angelique Kerber, the champion of three years ago, who saw off Nina Stojanovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-3.

Ultimately, though, the day belonged to Suárez Navarro, who received warm applause from the Centre Court crowd as she bade farewell for the final time. “I really appreciated it,” she said. “The crowd was amazing, it was fantastic. I’m in love with this tournament, this court and this crowd.” 

The feeling was mutual.

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