“I don’t know how [I saved match point] because she did a really great serve and I just played the [return], I don’t know, like a baby.”

Tough starts for (4) Kerber vs. Pavlyuchenkova who she is 6-6 career against, the wrist-addled (13) Keys vs. (WC) Mattek-Sands in an all-American, (9) Pliskova vs. Radwanska (winner to meet Konta), (6) Garcia vs. (WC) Azarenka, (8) Kvitova vs. the Serena-Gavrilova winner, (15) Mertens vs. Rybarikova who she has a losing record against, (5) Svitolina vs. (WC) Kuznetsova, and (2) Wozniacki vs. the Bertens-Vandeweghe winner…

“It is always not so easy to change also the surface,” Kerber said of moving from grass to hard court, arguably one of the easiest transitions on tour. “I think I need a little bit more time to get used to hardcourt again, to have a lot of matches, a lot of practice sessions on hard.”

The outrageous number of opening-round seeds vs. floaters match-ups includes (16) Kyrgios vs. (WC) Wawrinka, (11) Schwartzman vs. Edmund, (6) Cilic vs. Coric, (3) Del Potro vs. Nishikori, (14) Fognini vs. Johnson (winner to meet Shapovalov), (5) Dimitrov vs. Verdasco, (10) Goffin vs. Raonic, (4) Anderson vs. Rublev, (7) Thiem vs. the fast-rising Tsitsipas, (9) Djokovic vs. Chung, and (2) Zverev vs. Ferrer…

“Playing finals against Serena, you know that she is playing her best tennis,” Kerber said. “That’s the matches that she loves. Especially on the center courts. I was trying to not thinking too much that I playing against Serena. I was trying to staying on my side of the court. Staying little bit cool, being not too much emotion.”

“It’s crazy, I don’t even know to feel because I literally didn’t expect to do this well in my fourth tournament back in 16 months,” the 36 year old said afterwards.

Williams in the semifinal will line up against unlikely opponent and No. 13 seed Julia Goerges of Germany. The lanky, equally-big ball-striking Goerges has had little historical success at Wimbledon until Tuesday coming from a set down to defeat No. 20 seed Kiki Bertens 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Upsets continued to be the story of the women’s draw.

Murray and Wawrinka square off first round, winner to meet (2) Edmund…Other openers of interest are (8) Fuchsovics vs. the grass-ready Brit (WC) Norrie, the rookie (4) Ceccinato vs. the veteran Seppi, (5) Mayer vs. Simon (winner to meet Muller), and (7) Johnson vs. Medvedev (winner to face M.Zverev)…

Unseeded floaters to watch are the former No. 1 Azarenka (starting vs. Aleksandra Krunic then (7) Safarova), the former No. 2 Kuznetsova (vs. (3) Sevastova) and the former US Open winner Stosur (vs. Marketa Vondrousova then (5) Suarez Navarro)…

“It wasn’t coming natural to me,” said Sharapova, who hasn’t seen much come back since serving a doping offense for a medication given to Russian soldiers before they took to the battlefield.

“It didn’t start before I got here,” she said. “The first time I felt it was against [Julia] Goerges in my last match. That’s when I started to feel it.”

Four former No. 1s are in the Rome quarterfinals.

Tough starts went to (1) Halep vs. the Azarenka-Osaka winner, (13) Keys vs. Pavlyuchenkova, (9) Stephens vs. the crafty Strycova, (3) Muguruza vs. the Gavrilova-Bellis winner, (16) Barty vs. Sharapova…

Two-time Stuttgart champion Angelique Kerber thrilled her home fans beating Petra Kvitova.