• Wimbledon

Bouchard and Halep into semi-finals

ESPN staff
July 2, 2014
Eugenie Bouchard will face Simona Halep in the semi-finals © Getty Images
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Eugenie Bouchard made her third grand slam semi-final of the year after downing Angelique Kerber in straight sets at Wimbledon.

The Canadian held her nerve after a second-set wobble to win 6-3 6-4 on No.1 Court.

"I'm just excited to be in the semis again and I want to go one step further for sure," Bouchard said.

Bouchard will face Simona Halep in the last four, after she reeled off 11 successive games to engineer a comeback from 4-1 down in the first set and beat last year's runner-up Sabine Lisicki 6-3 6-0 on Centre Court in 57 minutes.

Both Bouchard and Halep, who will rise to No.2 in the world rankings if she reaches the final, are into the last four at SW19 for the first time.

Their progress to the final four has underlined the rise of a new crop of players in the women's game. Former champions Serena and Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova are all out of the tournament.

"I think it's a normal evolution of things as the great champions get a bit older the new ones start coming in I think it's a really exciting time for women's tennis," said the 20-year-old Bouchard, who will break into the top 10 in the world rankings next week.

Halep also becomes the first Romanian woman to get this far at the All England Club since the Open era began in 1968.

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