Agnieszka Radwanska, Garbine Muguruza to Meet in Wimbledon Semifinal

LONDON – Garbine Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska will meet on Thursday for an opportunity to advance to the Wimbledon final.

Muguruza, seeded 20, became the first player to secure a spot in the Wimbledon semifinals. She defeated 15 seed Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets on No. 1 Court.

Going into today, she was the first Spanish player since Conchita Martinez in 2001 to reach the quarterfinals. Now she becomes the first Spanish player since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicaro in 1997 to reach the semifinals.

The first set was a tad tricky for the 20-year-old. Overall, Bacsinszky dominated with her serve. But she could not protect her serve when she needed to the most or capitalize on two break points. Muguruza broke her just in time to avoid the tiebreak. In the second set, the players exchanged breaks, but Muguruza once again broke the Swiss to win the set and match.

“Really good,” she said when the press asked her how she found the match. “I wake up this morning thinking, I have to play. Today I woke up, I want to play the match. I feel good. I’m enjoying, you know, Court 1, a lot of people. I was, you know, having fun.”

Radwanska advanced to the semifinals when she defeated American Madison Keys in three sets. Even though Keys accumulated 12 aces, Radwanska hit more precise first serves and only committed seven unforced errors. Keys hit 40 unforced errors, which proved to be her undoing. Radwanska wore out Keys in the tiebreak, but Keys fired back in the second set. With sloppy play and six unforced errors, Radwanska surrendered the set to the young American. But she fixed her play and went into the third with a cool confidence around her. The smooth play led to zero unforced errors, a break, and a place in the semifinals. Will experience help her on Thursday?

“Experience is always very important, especially in a Grand Slam, but we’ll see,” she said. “Sometimes when you there for the first time, you also have nothing to lose. It’s always two sides. So, yeah, we’ll see.”