Fourth-seeded Serena Williams served 12 aces on Wednesday night to bring her total to 41 for the tournament and move to the semifinals with a typically overpowering victory, 6-1, 6-3 over Ana Ivanovic.
Williams landed 29 first serves in and won the point on 26 of them. She faced two break points and saved both of them. She has lost a total of 16 games through five matches. When No. 12 Ivanovic held serve to make it 3-1 in the first, it snapped a string of 23 straight games Williams had won, starting at the end of her third-round match last Saturday.
“I think the quality of tennis compared to last year, it was much higher, I think from both of us,” said Ivanovic, a 6-3, 6-4 loser to Williams in the fourth round last year. “I mean, she was serving unbelievable. She was hardly missing serves. That puts a lot of pressure on opponents’ own service games.”
Next up for Williams, 10th-seeded Sara Errani, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over her Italian doubles partner, Roberta Vinci. Errani will be the first Italian woman in the tournament since the Open era began in 1968.
On paper, that semifinal looks like a mismatch, with 1.63-metre Errani’s serve maxing out at 130 kph on Wednesday, while 1.75-metre Williams was consistently in the 170s kph. But Errani is the French Open runner-up and has lifted her ranking into the top 10 after starting the year at 45.
“A lot will depend on her,” Errani said about the matchup. “I will try to play my game, try to get her off balance. I still need to study up and prepare.”