Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Czech partner Barbora Strycova on Tuesday advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles semi-finals, while Novak Djokovic reached a 12th Wimbledon semi-final and record-equaling 46th at the Grand Slams as Elina Svitolina stunned world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
Hsieh and Strycova, who are aiming to recreate their 2019 Wimbledon doubles title campaign, defeated France’s Caroline Garcia and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in their quarter-final.
Hsieh, who also won the doubles title in 2013, and her partner are to play the winner of the quarter-final match of the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova and Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo versus Laura Siegemund of Germany and Vera Zvonareva of Russia.
Photo: AFP
Djokovic, chasing an eighth title at the All England Club and 24th career major, defeated Andrey Rublev 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 and is to face Italy’s Jannik Sinner for a place in the final.
The Serb has now reached as many semi-finals at the Slams as the retired Roger Federer.
The 36-year-old, playing in his 400th Grand Slam match, said he was enjoying being the man to beat.
Photo: AFP
“I love it. Any player wants to be in the position where all the other players want to beat you,” he said after preserving his record of not losing on Centre Court since 2013.
“The pressure never goes away every time I come on court,” he said. “They want to get a scalp and the win — but it ain’t happening.”
Svitolina, the world No. 76, who gave birth in October last year and only returned to the tour in April, stunned US Open and French Open champion Swiatek in her quarter-final 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2.
Svitolina, already a semi-finalist in 2019, is to take on Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic for a place in Saturday’s championship match.
Svitolina, playing on a wild card, has reached the semi-finals by seeing off a quartet of Grand Slam title winners in Venus Williams, Sofia Kenin, Victoria Azarenka, in a stormy last-16 clash, and now Swiatek.
She said she intended to “enjoy the moment and have a beer.”
“If you had told me before the tournament I would get to the semi-finals, I’d say you were crazy,” said Svitolina, who also made the last eight at the French Open last month.
Svitolina’s win kept alive the prospect of a politically charged final between her and Belarusian world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.
Belarus is a key ally of Russia in the war in Ukraine.
Sinner beat unseeded Russian Roman Safiullin to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final.
The Italian eighth seed recovered from a mid-match wobble to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
In the mixed doubles, Latisha Chan and Croatian partner Ivan Dodig lost their quarter-final match 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 to Joran Vliegen of Belgium and Xu Yifan of China.
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