Serena enters Wimbledon semis with comeback victory
London, July 11 : Serena Williams is one step closer to her eighth Wimbledon trophy after she beat Camila Giorgi of Italy 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.
"I never thought I was in danger of losing this match. Even when I was down in the first set, I thought, "Well, she's playing great, (but) I'm doing a lot of the right things.
"I never felt it was out of my hands. If there is one lesson I would teach my daughter it's never give in, always fight. It's really important in life, no matter what you're going through, to never quit," Williams said afterwards, reports Xinhua news agency.
This is only her fourth tournament since giving birth to daughter Olympia in September 2017, and the 23-time Grand Slam winner pointed out how motherhood had changed her approach to tennis.
"It's different now obviously because I have the baby. Being a mom is totally different," she said. "I just want to be more of a role model for my daughter, for lots of people out there that just want to be inspired."
Williams will take on No.13 seed Julia Gorges of Germany, who also managed a comeback win against Kiki Bertens 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 to make her first appearance in the semifinals at the All England Club.
The other semi-final will see No.11 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany take on No.12 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia as they both bested their respective oppenents in straight sets.
With all top 10 seeds having been knocked out before the quarter-finals, 2016 runner-up Kerber is the highest-ranked player still in the ladies' competition.
In the men's singles, Juan Martin Del Potro finally defeated Gilles Simon 7-6, 7-6, 5-7, 7-6 after a total of 4 hours and 24 minutes, in a match that stretched over two days.
The Argentine will have to recuperate quickly, as his quarter-final match against world No.1 Rafael Nadal is just around the corner.
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Cong says LoPs not invited to Putin banquet, takes swipe at Tharoor for accepting invite
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday said Leaders of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have not been invited to the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and took a swipe at its own MP Shashi Tharoor for accepting the invite.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "There has been speculation whether the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha have been invited for tonight's official dinner in honour of President Putin. The two LoPs have not been invited."
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera accused the government of breaking protocols daily and not believing in democratic principles.
"There is no invite to both the LoPs, Mr (Mallikarjun) Kharge and Mr (Rahul) Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I don't think we should be surprised. This government is known to be breaching all protocols. What else to say, ask the government," he told PTI Videos on the sidelines of an event.
Asked about party MP Tharoor getting invited to the banquet and accepting the invitation, Khera said, "Ask Mr. Tharoor. All of us who are in the party, if our leaders don't get invited and we get invited, we need to question our own conscience and listen to our conscience. Politics has been played in inviting or not inviting people, which in itself is questionable and those who accept such an invite is also questionable," Khera said.
"We would have listened to our voice of conscience," he added.
Earlier, Tharoor said there was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped from some years.
"It has been resumed ...I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go," the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs said.
On the LoPs reportedly not getting an invite, Tharoor said, "I don't know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the olden days, they used to invite not only the LoPs, (but) various other cross section of representatives of different parties. It conveys a good impression."
"I dont know the basis (of invitation), this is all done by the government, by the protocol by the Rashtrapati Bhawan, what do I know. All I can say I have honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go," Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
Gandhi on Thursday had alleged that the government tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet the Leader of the Opposition due to its "insecurity".
His remarks had come hours ahead of Putin's two-day visit to India.
Gandhi had said it is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the LoP but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of External Affairs were not following this norm.
"Normally the tradition is that those who come from abroad have a meeting with the LoP. This used to happen during (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji's time, Manmohan Singh ji's time, it has been a tradition but what happens these days is that when foreign dignitaries come and when I go abroad, the government suggests to them to not meet the LoP," Gandhi had told reporters in Parliament House complex.
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