German 13th seed Julia Goerges ended the giant-killing run of her close friend Kiki Bertens to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final with a 3-6 7-5 6-1 win at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
The two often go out for dinner together when they are playing at the same tournaments but there was no room for sharing any friendly banter as both eyed a place in the last four of the most famous tennis tournament.
Dutchwoman Bertens, who had gained an appetite for eating up higher-ranked players having beaten ninth seed Venus Williams and number seven Karolina Pliskova over the past week, appeared well on her way to swallowing up another when she won the first set against Goerges.
She also recovered from 4-1 down in the second to level up proceedings but Goerges kept on believing to subdue her pal and she booked a semi-final date with Serena Williams after watching a lunging Bertens roll the ball into the net on match point.
Goerges’ win kept alive the possibility of Wimbledon staging an all-German women’s final on Saturday as twice major winner Angelique Kerber takes on Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in the other semi.
