Angelique Kerber sprinted to her right to field a hard-hit crosscourt forehand from her opponent, Simona Halep. When she reached it, the German chopped down on a slice backhand and sent the ball, skidding slowly and spinning viciously, a millimeter over the net. It landed short, in front of the service line, and burrowed into the grass. Halep tried to dig it out, but its heavy backspin was too much to control, and she netted the next shot. In real time, Kerber’s stroke appeared to be an accident; there was no name in the tennis textbook for what she had just hit. But in replays afterward, it was clear that she had made the ball do exactly what she wanted, and go exactly where she wanted.

A few games later, Kerber ranged, at top speed, to her left to track down a crosscourt backhand from Halep. It looked for a second like Halep’s shot might go for a winner, but Kerber gobbled up the grass and made up the ground quickly, in time to rifle her own forehand back crosscourt, at a more extreme angle. Two shots later, Kerber was at the net, a place where she typically doesn’t spend much time. No matter: She finished the point with a forehand volley so drop-dead delicate it looked like it was pulled from a John McEnroe highlight reel.

It was that kind of day for the No. 4 seed, who won 7-5, 7-6 (2) in 90 minutes to reach her second Wimbledon semifinal. She was in full, Kerberesque flight throughout, which in her case means that she was improvising new shots off the cuff, creating angles where none seemed to exist and spreading the court for her down-the-line forehand attack. (Kerber and Halep each spent an inordinate amount of time outside the singles sidelines in this one.) While there were too many break of serves—13 over two sets—for it to go down as a classic, this was an athletic and shotmaking contest of the first order. The fact that it didn’t go three sets may have robbed us of a match-of-the-year candidate.

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“I thought it was a really high level from both of us,” Kerber said. “There were a lot of breaks, but we’re both great returners.”

Most of us had expected this match to be an entertaining run-around. Kerber and Halep nearly ran each other into the hospital on a hot day in Toronto last summer, and their all-around skills, combined with their lack of a knockout punch, means they have a penchant for marathons and epics. What I hadn’t expected, though, and what made the difference in the end, was Kerber’s offense. She came to dictate, and more often than not this born retriever got in the first strike, especially with her returns.

“I was trying to play my game,” Kerber said more than once in her post-match press conference. “Trying to be aggressive.”

Kerber has played her game throughout this fortnight, and hasn’t dropped a set in five matches. If her aggressive mindset has been a surprise, so has her success. Before Wimbledon, it had been a tough six weeks for Kerber, who lost in the first round in Madrid, Rome and Paris, and who generally hadn’t reacted well to the increased attention she received after she won her first major, at the Australian Open. It was getting easier to believe that her breakthrough win at 28 had been something of a fluke. Now, five months later, she has that Down Under feeling again, and she isn’t afraid to say it.

“I’m playing really good tennis right now,” Kerber said on Tuesday. “I’m playing like in Australia, really high-class tennis.”

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Kerber’s second surge of 2016 fits a WTA pattern. In just the last three months, we’ve seen similar runs of excellence from Victoria Azarenka in Indian Wells and Miami, and Garbiñe Muguruza in Rome and especially Paris. Since then, Vika has succumbed to injury again, while Muguruza flamed out in the second round at Wimbledon. Instead, it has been Kerber who has reminded us that she’s still around, and still a threat.

The reaction to these ever-undulating waves of WTA form is also predictable: First we wonder if the player is going to dominate from now on. Then, when she doesn’t, we wonder why no one on the women's side can “step up.” It would be nice to think that, after the spring Azarenka had, we would at least be mentioning her name at Wimbledon, and that Muguruza would follow her French triumph with something grittier than a perfunctory 6-3, 6-2 loss to Jana Cepelova.

Still, while the WTA's most talented players have suffered dips this year, they’ve also bounced back from them. The tour has gone in surges and swells, while avoiding a chaotic deluge. Right now it’s Kerber (or Venus Williams) who seems poised to challenge Serena Williams again. When the players come back to U.S. hard courts next month, it not hard to imagine Azarenka taking another turn in the WTA shotgun seat. No. 2 by committee is better than no No. 2 at all.

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Kerber Catches Another Wave

Kerber Catches Another Wave

For the moment, Kerber remains a match away from another final with Serena. First, though, she has to get past Venus. Kerber, who is 3-2 against Venus, knows it won’t be easy.

“She’s always dangerous on grass,” said Kerber, who lost her last meeting with Venus, in 2014, “and especially at Wimbledon.”

But while Kerber lacks the experience of her opponent, who has won this title five times, the German has been here before at Wimbledon. In 2012, she lost to Agnieszka Radwanska at this stage.

“It’s not my first semis,” Kerber said—her confident tone made you think that the word “semis” could have been replaced with “rodeo.”

The WTA this year has been a series of towering waves. We’ll see if Kerber can surf her second one all the way in.