Serena Williams stayed on track for an eighth Wimbledon title as she fought back to beat Italian Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a fiercely contested quarter-final at the All England Club yesterday.

For the first time in the tournament the 36-year-old was seriously challenged as unseeded Giorgi fought fire with fire to claim the first set on Centre Court.

Williams responded by raising the intensity level and began striking the ball with ferocious power to break Giorgi’s serve for the first time on her way to levelling the match.

World No. 52 Giorgi dropped serve to love early in the decider but hung in gamely to at least make Williams serve to reach her 35th Grand Slam semifinal and 11th at Wimbledon. Williams stepped up to the line at 5-4 and brought up match point with an ace before completing victory when Giorgi could only push a forehand into the net.

The 25th-seeded American will take on 13th seed Julia Goerges after the German saw off No. 20 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 3-6, 7-5, 6-1

Earlier, Angelique Kerber, the former No. 1 and two-time major champion who was the runner-up at Wimbledon two years ago, reached her third Wimbledon semifinal after converting her seventh match point to beat Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-5, setting up a meeting with former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Ostapenko became the first Latvian woman to make the last four at the All England Club with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova on a windy No. 1 Court.

Also, Juan Martin del Potro became the last man into the quarterfinals by beating Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (5).

The fifth-seeded del Potro failed to convert four match points when serving at 5-4 in the fourth set, but maintained his composure to close out the contest with his first opportunity in the tiebreaker that followed.

It was the only fourth-round contest to be carried over to yesterday and lasted 4 hours, 24 minutes, making it the longest men’s singles match of the tournament.

Del Potro of Argentina will face two-time champion Rafael Nadal of Spain in the quarterfinals today.

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