Petra Kvitova had never won a match on grass before last week and she had not won two matches in succession anywhere since February, but the world No 62 is now within sight of the final of a grand-slam tournament. The only slightly daunting obstacle is that she must beat Serena Williams first.
They have met once, at this year’s Australian Open, where Williams swatted her aside for the loss of three games. While Kvitova’s drubbing of Caroline Wozniacki, the No 3 seed, on Monday will have raised her confidence, the way she struggled past Kaia Kanepi yesterday suggests that the semi-final might be like a hunter trying to bring down a charging rhino with a pea-shooter.
Kanepi was bidding to become the third woman in the Open era to reach the semi-final of a grand-slam tournament after coming through qualifying and the Estonian looked the better player for much of a scrappy match. She won the first set 6-4 after Kvitova double-faulted on break point at 4-4 and held three match points in a tie-break before Kvitova won it 10-8.
Momentum was swinging to the Czech, but Kanepi came out firing in the final set and took a 4-0 lead. The world No 80, whose form had collapsed after peaking at No 18 little more than a year ago, had not been past the second round in four previous appearances at Wimbledon and perhaps the realisation that she was on the verge of the semi-finals made her muscles tighten.
She was broken once, served for the match at 5-3 and was broken again, then spurned two more match points when attacking Kvitova at 6-5. Cruelly, on the first of those two points, Kvitova struck the net cord with a second serve and the ball just trickled over to earn her another chance. She won the third set 8-6.
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“I played my serve very badly today,” Kvitova said. “I won without a serve.” She cannot afford to be without it tomorrow. The last left-hander to win the women’s title was another Czech — Martina Navratilova in 1990 — but Kvitova will be long odds to follow her.