LONDON: Serena Williams demonstrated that having a baby had not robbed her of any of her phenomenal tennis skills when she became the first mother in 38 years to reach the Wimbledon final, with a 6-2 6-4 demolition of Germany’s Julia Goerges on Thursday. Goerges had come into her first Grand Slam semi-final having belted more winners (199), more aces (44) and more unreturned serves (113) than anyone else in the women’s draw but those statistics counted for little when she came up against an opponent who is in hot pursuit of a record-equalling 24th major. The 13th seed had never taken a set off Williams in three previous meetings and any hopes she might have harboured of setting up an all-German final with Angelique Kerber, who had beaten Jelena Ostapenko earlier, were dashed in 70 unforgiving minutes. In each set Goerges was broken in the sixth game and she simply did not have the firepower or belief to stop the seven-times champion from surging to a 20th successive win on the hallowed turf. Williams was back giving the crowd a one-arm raised victory twirl after reaching a 10th Wimbledon final after her opponent swiped a lob behind the baseline. At 181st in the world, Williams, who gave birth to a daughter 10 months ago, is the lowest ranked player to reach the women’s final but that number will fool no one, and especially not Kerber who was runner-up to the American in the 2016 final. Published in Daily Times, July 13th 2018.