By Pritha Sarkar
LONDON (Reuters) -The balls kept on listening to Iga Swiatek on Wednesday as the Polish eighth seed walloped Liudmila Samsonova 6-2 7-5 to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time.
After years of nightmare outings at the spiritual home of lawn tennis, Swiatek appears to have finally conquered her grasscourt demons as she said the “ball has been really listening” to her at Wimbledon this year.
That was certainly in evidence on Wednesday as from the moment Swiatek launched into a 105mph ace to save break point in the opening game, the ball dutifully obeyed the Pole as winner after winner flew off her racket.
“Honestly, it feels great. I have goosebumps after this win. I am super happy and super proud of myself and I will keep going,” a thrilled Swiatek told the crowd after setting up a semi-final showdown with unseeded Swiss Belinda Bencic.
“I really enjoy playing (on grass) this year and hopefully it is going to last as long as possible. I worked really hard to progress here on this surface.”
From 2-2 in the first set, the five-times Grand Slam champion suffocated her Russian opponent on a hot and sticky Court One, winning seven games in a row with some ferocious forehands from the baseline that left Samsonova gasping for air.
There was simply no place to hide for Samsonova, who does not like discovering the identity of her opponents until the 11th hour, as Swiatek won all of her first serve points during the opening set.
Swiatek must have thought she would be back in her rented Wimbledon home before too long to tuck into her favourite dish — pasta tossed with strawberries and yoghurt — as she led 6-1 3-0.
However, Samsonova clung on for dear life despite surrendering her serve twice in the second set by misfiring double faults on break points.
The 19th seed, who was inspired to pick up a tennis racket after watching compatriot Maria Sharapova playing on TV, managed to break the Swiatek serve not once but twice to level the second set at 4-4.
The fightback failed to throw off Swiatek, however, as the Pole never dropped her incredible intensity and continued to threaten to take the racket out of her opponent’s hand with the astonishing power she was generating from the baseline.
So loud was the thundering ‘thwack’ sound as her racket made contact with the ball that startled spectators were often jolted in their seats. It also unnerved Samsonova, whose Wimbledon hopes crumbled under 38 unforced and 16 forced errors.
Four games later it was all over as Swiatek skipped around the court in celebration after hitting a brutal service return winner to complete her full set of semi-final appearances at the four majors.
“Right now it’s tough to understand what happened exactly,” said Samsonova, whose bid to reach a Grand Slam semi-final for the first time ended in heartbreak as she succumbed to a fifth successive defeat to Swiatek.
“It’s incredible what I have achieved, but right now I cannot feel it.
“Today Iga was at top level. Everyone knows that she’s the one who I would love to beat. In the future, maybe…,” she added as her voice trailed off.
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Ken Ferris and Toby Davis)
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