Mixed doubles with Andy Murray was fun but Serena Williams got back to the serious business as she powered into her 11th Wimbledon final by overwhelming unseeded Czech Barbora Strycova in a brutal 6-1 6-2 victory on Centre Court on Thursday.
Clobbering huge serves and forehands, the veteran American was always in control as she set up a showdown with Romanian former world number one Simona Halep in Saturday’s final.
Strycova held for 1-1 in the first set but any notion that a contest would break out disappeared in the blink of an eye as she was overwhelmed by the Williams power to trail 5-1.
She had a chance to slow the Williams advance when she got to 0-40 on the 11th seed’s serve with the help of a netcord but Williams raised the tempo to reel off five points, ending the first set in 27 minutes with a booming ace.
Strycova bashed down an ace of her own as she held serve at the start of the second set and held firm until 2-2.
Eyes narrowing on the target, Williams made it 4-2 with a love service game and broke again for a 5-2 lead — Strycova emitting a piercing scream as she wafted a straightforward volley into the tramlines.
Williams fired down a huge serve on match point and when Strycova clawed it back she stroked away the simplest of forehands to seal her place in the final.
After tricky moments during the fortnight — dropping sets against qualifier Kaja Juvan in round two and compatriot Alison Riske in the quarter-finals, Williams is in the groove as her biggest test looms.
In years to come when tennis fans flick through the hefty 500-page Wimbledon Compendium, they will note that in 2019 Simona Halep rolled over Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in the semi-finals for the loss of just four games.
What the 6-1 6-3 scoreline will not reveal, however, was that Halep took nine minutes to hold serve in the opening game of the encounter played out in glorious sunshine on Centre Court or that Svitolina earned and squandered three break points.
Readers will also have no idea that the first two games alone lasted 20 exhilarating minutes, featuring 10 break points and that Svitolina could have been 2-0 up if she had capitalised on the numerous opportunities that fell her way.
Instead, it was Halep who grabbed the 2-0 lead before running away with a victory that put her one win from becoming the first Romanian to lift a Wimbledon singles trophy.
As both Halep and Svitolina stretched every sinew running to chase down everything their opponent could throw at them in rallies that went on for over 20 shots, fans who had settled into their $200 (£159) seats thought they were about to witness a show-stopping battle that could become an all-time classic.
But just when Williams and Barbora Strycova, who were waiting in the wings ready to contest the second semi-final, might have been contemplating if they would need to change their dinner plans, Halep was broken to love in the very next game.
A clash that had looked close on paper, with eighth seed Svitolina holding a 4-3 advantage in head-to-head meetings with seventh seed Halep, ended up being thin on drama.
Before Svitolina had a chance to daydream about what it would be like to become the first Ukrainian to feature in a Wimbledon singles final, she had lost the first set without holding her serve even once.
It might have taken Halep 20 minutes to win the first two games, but the rest of the set lasted only another 23 minutes to the disappointment of not only Svitolina but also her tennis-playing boyfriend Gael Monfils who sat frowning in the players’ box.
When Svitolina finally held serve for the first time to open the second set, the ‘sympathy clap’ that usually follows such occasions was also missing. It appeared as if the 15,000 spectators had lost interest in a match that was heading for only one conclusion.
Halep stormed through her first three service games in the second set without dropping a point and within a blink of an eye, she held two match points at 5-3 up on Svitolina’s serve.
A forehand error on the first delayed her celebrations but she made no mistake on the second when the Ukrainian netted a backhand.