WoW! She's really on fire and physically prepared to play 2 matches in one day! Congrats Anna Where will this put her in the junior rankings?

Anna is the first Brit to reach the semis since Elena B and Anne K both managed it in 2001 (Elena defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarters). She's first up on court 18 against Urszula Radwanska (a semi-finalist last year as well, accounting for Naomi on the way). Here's a report from the Wimbledon website:


British Girl Fitzpatrick Into Semis


British wild card Anna Fitzpatrick continued her charge through the Girls' Singles, winning two tough matches in a day to reach the semi-finals.

First the girl from Sheffield showed real steel to held off a fierce fightback from 13th seed Ksenia Lykina and then, within hours, she was back out on court against Gail Brodsky and recorded another impressive victory.

In that second match, Fitzpatrick showed she was sharp rather than weary as she built up an early lead, breaking her opponent twice to take the first set 6-2.

He intelligent, selectively aggressive game, made it simple for her to deal with the erratic American, who looked to be still feeling the effects of her last match having lasted more than two hours.

However, in the fourth game of the second set, Fitzpatrick was fighting extremely hard to get into the baseline rallies on Brodsky's serve where she tried to stretch her opponent in an attempt to get the all-important second set break-of-serve.

By now, Brodsky had tightened up her technique, and shrugged off the nerves, and was not going to allow her opponent an easy ride into the semi-finals.

In fact Brodsky went on a hot streak to earn three break points in the fifth game of the second set swinging the momentum of the match in her favour for the very first time.

Realising that she must try her utmost best to do everything to avoid a Match Tie-break, Fitzpatrick straight away went searching for the vital break point but was denied by the revitalised Brodsky, who bounced back from her lacklustre opening set to lead the second 4-2.

Both girls did start to slow down and errors crept into their shots. For a couple of games, Fitzpatrick looked as though she was unable to maintain the high intensity of play required to level the match. But the breakthrough eventually came in the eighth game, and Fitzpatrick held her serve to lead 5-4.

The English girl, ranked 436 in the juniors, slogged her way through the pain barrier to see, but not convert, one match point at 5-4. Seemingly from nowhere Fitzpatrick found an extra level to her play but shortly ran out of steam gifting the American two break points at 5-5. Brodsky, however, was unable to secure the break and Fitzpatrick held to leave her one last attempt to win the match on her opponent's serve.

Using the cross court angles of her groundstrokes to open up the court, three match points duly arrived and, in the first of them, Fitzpatrick's forehand was struck with such accuracy that a puff of white powder flew up from the ground confirming that Fitzpatricks shot had landed right on the baseline to win the match 6-2, 7-5.

Earlier in the day, in her third round match, the unseeded 18-year-old from Sheffield started as she would eventually be ending the day, in a strong and convincing fashion, to break the Russian's serve as early as the second game while Lykina was struggling to adapt to the windy conditions. The quick footwork of Fitzpatrick and her accurate ground strokes wrapped up the first set after converting a second break in the seventh game of the match and continued to hold serve with real confidence.

Lykina then requested a medical time-out for treatment on her left shoulder, which seemed to be causing her a lot of pain.

After the long break, Fitzpatrick seemed to have lost her timing on her ground strokes and the confidence in her ability to keep serve. Meanwhile, the now resurgent 17-year-old from Moscow was looking like a completely different player.

The Russian's high-risk aggressive tactics saw her storm through the second set 6-0 and take the match to the deciding Match Tie-Break.

During the first few points of the decider, Lykina maintained her stranglehold over the match to establish an early lead. Fitzpatrick was forced to work extremely hard in the rallies to close the gap to 6-6 and then 7-7. With the opportunity to take the lead, she responded to the challenge and raised her game at exactly the right time to go 9-7 ahead. On the second match point, the Russian's forehand bounced just over the baseline and the 18-year-old Briton was through 6-2, 0-6, 1-0 (10-8).

After the second match Anna Fitzpatrick said she initially believed that she was only going to play one match: "I didn't realize this morning I was going to have to play two. When I found out, I was quite relaxed about it. I just went to calm down after my match, spoke to my coaches. I was fine going on court. I was ready and prepared."

She also said about her semi-final and potential final; "I'm just taking one match at the same time. If I win tomorrow, great, then I can start thinking about the final. Until then, I've still got another match to play."

-- Edited by DavidC at 23:52, 2007-07-06

Still a great week, Makes up for the dissapointement of Naomi going out early.

Radwanska went on to win the final.