Wimbledon diary – Friday

Serena Williams booked her place in her 11th Wimbledon final as she breezed past Barbora Strycova in the semi-finals on Thursday.

The Czech struggled to cope with Williams’ skill and power and it was the American who ran out a comfortable victor, 6-1 6-2.

Having enjoyed her first Wimbledon victory back in 2002, Williams can now look forward to facing Simona Halep in the 2019 final on Saturday (Williams 8/15, Halep 6/4 – Match Betting).

The 37-year-old has admitted she has been thinking back to her first win at Wimbledon and is determined to bring back that same energy this year in the final.

“I was trying to tap into those emotions. I was really calm,” she said. “[I was] just trying to tap into that younger Serena, trying to tap into how to win basically.”

Halep beat Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-3 to reach her maiden final at the All England Club and the Romanian has talked up her chances in the showpiece event.

“I will believe that I have my chance to win against her,” said Halep. “Of course, I respect a lot what she has done and what she’s doing.

“But now I feel stronger mentally facing her. We will see what is going to happen. It’s just a big challenge for me.”

Meanwhile, in the men’s competition, Friday will see two thrilling semi-finals take place with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal set to resume their illustrious rivalry (Nadal 8/11, Federer 11/10 – Match Betting).

Roberto Bautista Agut will be looking to continue his positive form against Novak Djokovic when they go head-to-head in the other semi-final (Djokovic 1/14, Agut 13/2 – Match Betting).

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