2012 Wimbledon: 2010 Champ Beats 2011 Champ!

As I predicted yesterday, the 2010 Wimbledon champion eliminated the defending 2011 Wimbledon champion, as Serena Williams beat Petra Kvitova 6-3 7-5 by never losing her serve and breaking her Czech opponent's serve twice.The 13-time major champion raised the level of her play significantly, and the two players traded powerful, accurate groundstrokes, repeatedly painting the lines in a very high quality match. Serena had 27 winners (including 13 aces and no double faults) to 10 unforced errors compared to Kvitova's 21 winners (3 aces but 2 double faults) to 14 unforced errors. Serena converted 2 of 4 breakpoints and saved the one breakpoint she faced in the 10th game of the second set (which also happened to be a  set point), Serena then used that momentum to break Kvitova's serve in the very next game and then continued her excellent serving by blasting two aces and an unreturnable serve to win the final game of the match.

Serena will play the winner of the Victoria Azarenka-Tamira Paszek quarterfinal. Against either player Serena will be the prohibitive favorite to reach her 7th final at Wimbledon on Saturday and join her sister Venus in winning the title 5 times in her career.