WIMBLEDON, England — That was peak Serena, and certainly not the same player we saw in the first couple rounds here at the All England Club.
Just last week, Williams lost a set to a player ranked outside the top 100. Since then, she has been steadily improving with each successive round. That progression reached a new level today, when she played fellow 30-something Barbora Strycova off the court in a 6-1, 6-2 semifinal victory that took all of 59 minutes. She's moving better, she's striking the ball better—heck, she's doing everything better than she did in Week One.