By Chris Oddo | Thursday July 12, 2018
Wimbledon, England—Angelique Kerber broke open a close match then thwarted a late push from Jelena Ostapenko to notch a 6-3, 6-3 victory and take her place in the Wimbledon final for the second time in three years.
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The German played her usual stingy brand of counterpunching tennis, hitting ten winners against just seven unforced errrors and saving four of five break points.
It wasn't a masterpiece but it didn't need to be. Kerber asked the questions, and more often than not Ostapenko lacked the patience and variety to produce an adequate response. It's the style of tennis that has worked so well for Kerber on grass over the years--she improved to 29-10 lifetime at Wimbledon and she continued her run of fine returning by breaking four times on seven opportunities to improve her percentage of return games won to 47 percent.
Kerber broke for 4-3 in the opener after saving a break point while serving at 2-3 with a clutch ace, one of three that she hit on the day. The 30-year-old then held through a deuce game for 5-3 before breaking for the set when Ostapenko tossed in one of her three double-faults on the day.
It was a patchy performance from Ostapenko for most of the match, and while she mustered 30 winners, they didn't come at critical sequences and they were usually divided by unforced errors that allowed Kerber to keep hold and expand her lead as the match wore on.
Ostapenko had a decent start to the match, cracking 14 winners against 12 unforced errors through the first six games, but her backhand down the line let her down repeatedly and she finished with 36 unforced errors, 18 on the backhand side.
After falling behind 5-1 in the second set Ostapenko saved a match point with a backhand winner and proceeded to break and hold to get to 5-3.
She even earned a break point for 5-4 but Kerber forced a backhand error and took the final two points from there to clinch the victory in a tidy 68 minutes.
Kerber improves to 4-3 lifetime in Grand Slam semifinals and she will bid for her third major title on Saturday against the winner of today’s second semifinal between Serena Williams and Julia Goerges.
More to follow…