Julia Goerges v Serena Williams Preview – July 12th, 2018
It is unlikely that you would have been looking at a list of contenders for Wimbledon 2018 and would have pencilled in Germany’s Julia Goerges from the start. This is far and away from her best ever form at a Grand Slam event for the 29-year-old in her entire career. She has always been pegged as a better clay court player but had never made it past the fourth round of any Grand Slam before this.
From her previous attempts at Wimbledon, she had never been past the third round. But Goerges, very quietly has had a solid season with a WTA singles title to her name. She carried a 24-13 match record with her into Wimbledon, and she will be looking to break more new ground by recording her first ever win over Serena Williams. Goerges is the only one of the four semi-finalists this year not to have won a Grand Slam title during her career.
Julia Goerges v Serena Williams Odds*
Serena Williams 2/7
Julia Goerges 11/4
* (betting odds taken at 9:57 pm on July 11th, 2018)
It hasn’t been plain sailing for the German though as she was taken to three sets in both the second and third round. After an easy fourth-round win over Donna Vekic, Goerges then went up against Kiki Bertens in the quarter finals and again was taken to three sets. That match up actually saw something great from the German because she had dropped the first set for the first time in the tournament but had enough energy to power her way back.
Williams powers on
While she was watching all the top seeds tumble around her, Serena Williams has worked her way through to the final four. It’s been a good tournament considering her lack of tennis this year and you can forget all about the seeding/not seeding debate around her ahead of the tournament. She has gotten to the semi-final on merit and she is the favourite to win this duel and can be backed at 8/11 odds* (betting odds took at 9:57 pm on July 11th, 2018) to win 2-0 in set betting.
The way that the draw has opened for Williams at this tournament means that Goerges will be the first seeded player that she has met. Williams did drop the first set of her quarter-final tussle with Camila Giorgi, the first one that Williams has let go at the tournament so far. Williams will be taking on a tricky left-hander in Goerges who does have a height advantage over the American, but still, we don’t see Georges taking a set in this one.
Williams now will be running on experience while she will be taking on a player who could well be overwhelmed by this huge occasion. Williams has so much experience and she didn’t panic after dropping that first set in the quarter-final. The seven-time Wimbledon Champion, who has won five of her last eight appearances at SW19 is probably going to take some stopping at this point. Williams may not have had the games behind her this season that Georges has, but the way she has handled herself at Wimbledon, we don’t see an upset.
Head to head
Goerges and Williams have met three times before but never before on grass. Williams incidentally won all three of these previous matches, including a duel in the round of 32 at the French Open this season. Williams hasn’t dropped a set against the German before from their previous contests.
Georges v Williams prediction
We can’t look past Williams getting the job done in this one and we are going to back her to power her way through to the final without dropping a set as well. Georges has had a wonderful resurgence of form late in her career and it is a huge credit to her that she is in the final four. However, the experience of her opponent is likely to overwhelm her. Any kind of early advantage that Williams gets is likely to see her run away with this. Williams to win 2-0 is our prediction for this Wimbledon semi-final.
