Sharapova overcomes shaky serves, Lisicki

Wimbledon, England — Maria Sharapova whacked some serves long and blasted others straight into the net, and all too often she did it one after another.

It didn’t matter much, though, because the fifth-seeded Russian overcame 13 double-faults in a woeful serving display to reach her first Wimbledon final since 2004, beating German wild card Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 6-3 Thursday.

“From the beginning I didn’t quite serve well,” said Sharapova, who won the first of her three Grand Slam titles at the All England Club seven years ago. “I felt like I was just rushing things, my first serve. … I didn’t really want to give her too many looks on second serves. I think maybe I overthought it too much.”

Sharapova has yet to drop a set at this year’s tournament, and she’ll be the favorite on Saturday when she faces Petra Kvitova in the championship match.

The eighth-seeded Kvitova advanced by beating Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, hitting nine aces en route to her first major final.

men’s semifinals

In the men’s semifinals late last night, Novak Djokovic faced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga while defending champion Rafael Nadal played against Andy Murray. (Results were not available as of press time.)

At 24, Sharapova was the oldest semifinalist at this year’s tournament — and her seven-year gap between Wimbledon finals is the longest in the Open era. That extra experience could be what pulled her through even though her serve let her down early.

After Lisicki held to open the match, Sharapova was broken at love. The first point of the game was a double-fault, and so was the last.

Down 3-0, Sharapova again double-faulted twice, with the second miscue giving Lisicki another break point.

Sharapova saved that, and the match.

From there, Sharapova won 12 of the final 16 games.

“Today wasn’t my best match of the championships so I was real happy to get through in two sets,” said Sharapova, who also won the 2006 U.S. Open and the 2008 Australian Open. “But, yeah, it’s pretty amazing to be back on that stage.”

It is amazing, but mostly because of the shoulder surgery Sharapova went though in October 2008. Since then, the Russian had been in exactly one Grand Slam semifinal, and that came a few weeks ago at the French Open. AP