When an irresistible force meets an immovable object, something always has to give. But here on Thursday it was never going to be Angelique Kerber. She was at her resilient best as she repelled the power of Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-3 to reach the Wimbledon final for the second time in three years. After winning two grand slam titles in 2016 and then struggling to cope in 2017, the German is back. Ostapenko, who turned 21 last month, possesses so much power that, when she is on her game – as she showed at the French Open last year when she won her first grand slam title – few can match it. Her backhand drew gasps from the Centre Court crowd and had Kerber on the run. But the 11th seed soaked up the power, ran everything down and except for a mini-wobble at the end, when Ostapenko came at her again, never allowed the Latvian the chance to believe. By the end she had made only seven unforced errors, a brick wall in the face of a barrage. Ostapenko made 36. Saturday’s final against Serena Williams will be a repeat of 2016’s, when the American won a tight two-setter to claim a seventh Wimbledon crown. That was the year Kerber won her two majors – in Australia, where she beat Williams in the final, and at the US Open, when she edged out Karolina Pliskova. After reaching the No 1 ranking she somehow lost her motivation, lost her focus and it is only this year she has regained that kind of form. “I’m really proud to be back in the Wimbledon final, especially after last year, where things weren’t like I expected,” she said. “To be here again, that was a goal when I started this year, to play good in the grand slams and also to reaching finals again. It’s a great feeling. It’s still one more match to go. But I think for me it’s great.” Ostapenko, the 12th seed, had not dropped a set on her way to a first Wimbledon semi-final and she began well, saving a break point in the opening game. When the score was 2-2, all 13 of her points had come from winners. It was all or nothing, high-risk tennis from the Latvian – she knows no other way – and she stayed with Kerber to 3-3, until an errant backhand handed the German the break. Kerber held a tight service game to go ahead 5-3 and took the set when Ostapenko double-faulted, before racing ahead 3-0 in the second set as the errors flowed from the Ostapenko racket. The left-handed Kerber extended her lead to 5-1 but Ostapenko saved a match point with a monstrous backhand and then broke back moments later. At that stage Kerber suddenly looked nervous. Ostapenko held for 5-3 and had a break point in the next game, only to net her return. Kerber finally got over the line when Ostapenko’s forehand drifted wide, sending her into a fourth grand slam final. “I was trying to not think too much because I know how she played a lot of good matches where she came back from a score like that, then she has nothing to lose and she is even playing better,” Kerber said. “I was just trying to focus on my serve in the last game, trying to hold it because I think that was then the key at the end because you never know what [might] happen [if] I had lost the game for 4-5.” So fine are the margins. Ostapenko, who said she felt the Centre Court had played slower than the outside courts, where she had played her previous four matches, agreed that things might have changed if she had been able to grab that second break back. “Yes, I felt the match could turn the other way,” she said. “She started already to miss a couple of balls which she didn’t before because she was playing very consistent during the whole match. “But then, again, I was rushing too much and hit some unforced errors, which I shouldn’t, of course. Then the match finished.” And so, for the third time in her four grand slam finals, Kerber will meet Williams for the title. The 30-year-old said she is looking forward to it. “I think it is a completely new match,” she said. “I think we both learned a lot. She’s coming back. I’m coming back from 2017. I know that I have to play my best.”<doc-sep>Angelique Kerber has been here before. In her career-best season of 2016 – during which she won both hard-court slams – Kerber also reached the Wimbledon final. Yet her dream of emulating childhood idol Steffi Graf was swept aside in just 81 minutes, as Serena Williams turned in such a peerless serving performance that Kerber was often relegated to the status of a spectator. Two years later, Kerber is back, after much soul-searching and self-discovery. Starting the 2017 season as world No. 1 turned out to be a burden for this charming but understated woman, who felt her poise disintegrating interview by interview, photoshoot by photoshoot. At the start of 2018, Kerber decided it was time to put herself first. As a result, her performances in press conferences might have slipped, but those on the match court have been revitalised. Kerber reached the semi-final of the Australian Open and the quarter-finals of the French Open, losing to world No. 1 Simona Halep both times. Halep fell in the third round here, but another major champion – Jelena Ostapenko, who won at Roland Garros last year – stood in Kerber’s way yesterday. If the best tennis matches are contrasts of styles, this first semi-final should have been a classic.<doc-sep>Sandra Harwitt Special to USA TODAY Sports WIMBLEDON, England — Angelique Kerber will vie for her third career Grand Slam title after ousting 12th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-3 in the Wimbledon semifinals on Thursday. The 11th-seeded Kerber only needed 68 minutes to beat Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion. Kerber captured her first two Grand Slam titles in 2016 — at the Australian Open and U.S. Open. In Australia, she upset Serena Williams for the trophy, becoming the first German woman to win a Grand Slam title since Steffi Graf at the 1999 French Open. At the time, Kerber’s victory in Melbourne made her only the fourth woman to defeat Williams in a Grand Slam final. Since then, Garbine Muguruza joined the list after beating Williams in the 2016 French Open final. In New York, Kerber downed Karolina Pliskova to win the U.S. Open. Kerber also played in the 2016 Wimbledon final, which she lost in straight sets to Williams. Kerber controlled the match, booking her spot in the final when Ostapenko flailed a forehand wide on the second match point in the match. Kerber will play the winner Saturday of the semifinal between No. 25 Williams and 13th-seeded Julia Goerges.<doc-sep>LONDON - Angelique Kerber reached her third Wimbledon semifinal after converting her seventh match point to beat Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-5 on Tuesday, setting up a meeting with former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko. Ostapenko became the first Latvian woman to make the last four at the All England Club with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Dominika Cibulkova on a windy No. 1 Court. Kerber, the former No. 1 and two-time major champion who was the runner-up at Wimbledon two years ago, took advantage of Kasatkina's erratic serving and many errors to return to the last four. Kasatkina finished with seven double-faults, including one on break point in the second game and then two straight to hand Kerber a 5-3 lead in the first set - halting her momentum just after breaking to get back on serve with the help of one of the best rallies of the match. Still, Kerber had some trouble closing things out. She served for the victory at 5-4 in the second set, but got broken. When she served for it a second time, she needed to navigate a 16-point game that included five deuces and all of those match points, until forcing a forehand error on the last. Ostapenko was more efficient, serving her match out at love and converting her first match point with her 14th backhand winner. Ostapenko was the aggressor throughout, hitting 33 winners to Cibulkova's six, but also hitting 28 unforced errors to 13 for her opponent. She repeatedly went for winners on her service returns, a strategy that helped her break Cibulkova five times. Both players struggled to deal with the wind at times when serving, having to interrupt their ball-toss motion on several occasions in the second set. They traded breaks early in both sets before Ostapenko broke decisively for a 3-2 lead in the second when Cibulkova sent a forehand long. Later, Serena Williams resumed her quest for an eighth Wimbledon title when she played 52nd-ranked Camila Giorgi of Italy. In the fourth quarterfinal, 13th-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany faced former French Open semifinalist Kiki Bertens, with both players having reached the last eight at Wimbledon for the first time. Also, Juan Martin del Potro became the last man into the quarterfinals by beating Gilles Simon 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (5). The fifth-seeded del Potro failed to convert four match points when serving at 5-4 in the fourth set, but maintained his composure to close out the contest with his first opportunity in the tiebreaker that followed. It was the only fourth-round contest to be carried over to Tuesday and lasted 4 hours, 24 minutes, making it the longest men's singles match of the tournament. Del Potro will face two-time champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.<doc-sep>
In the end, it doesn’t matter how hard you punch if you’re throwing them at a brick wall. And for that reason, Jelena Ostapenko is out of Wimbledon and Serena Williams might just sleep a little uneasily on Friday night. No one would want to face Angelique Kerber on current form and even Williams will have her doubts after seeing what the German can do to those who like to play on the front foot. That is not to equate Ostapenko too closely with Williams, but it is necessary to consider that the aggressive Latvian had not dropped a set in her run to the semi-final. Angelique Kerber celebrates after beating Jelena Ostapenko in Thursday's Wimbledon semi The players shake hands at the net after their contest which took 68 minutes on Centre Court She was relentless in going big on her shots and she was reasonably successful in hitting her targets, but when everything keeps coming back, as it usually does against Kerber, a mistake will eventually come. It was a death by a thousand returns and Saturday’s final will be a fascinating meeting of puncher and counter-puncher, just as this match was. It would not be an outrageous bet to back Kerber to avenge her defeat by Williams in the 2016 final. She beat Ostapenko for the loss of just seven unforced errors and only one brief wobble at 5-1 up in the second set when she was broken. It was close to her best form from 2016, when she won two Slams and reached world No 1 before tumbling outside the top 20 in 2017. German Kerber was much more solid than her opponent and made just seven unforced errors Lefty Kerber hit three aces and zero double faults as she won all but one of her service games Kerber said: ‘I’m really proud to be back in the Wimbledon final, especially after last year where things weren’t like I was expecting. ‘Serena is coming back as well. She is always pushing you to the limits to play your best tennis. ‘This is the only chance to beat her.’ Young Ostapenko's frustration shows during an erratic display filled with unforced errors