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Garbine Muguruza has easy match on way to Wimbledon final

Spain’s Garbine Muguruza returns to Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova during their semifinal match at Wimbledon July 13. Muguruza won 6-1, 6-1.
(Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP Photo)
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It’s safe to say that Garbine Muguruza will face a stiffer challenge from Venus Williams in the Wimbledon women’s final than the Spaniard did in Thursday’s semifinal.

Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova didn’t offer much resistance in her 6-1, 6-1 loss to Muguruza.

“I just wanted to play good match,” said Rybarikova, who had played in 57 Grand Slam matches yet, until this Wimbledon, had never made it past the third round in any of those tournaments. “I just wanted the crowd to enjoy that. I don’t think so they did because was very fast match.

“Even we had some very good rallies, but I was, like, sometimes I could not believe. Sometimes I really was great, and she played even better.”

Her flameout in the semifinal notwithstanding, Rybarikova was still pleased with her tournament.

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“If somebody tell me before the tournament I’m going to be in semifinal, I for sure take it. You tell me I’m going to lose 6-1, 6-1... Obviously I’m a little bit disappointed. But still great.”

History in the making

These aren’t no-names in Friday’s men’s semifinals, far from it, but it’s the first time since 2003 that all four players in a Grand Slam semifinal are outside the top four in world rankings.

No. 5 Roger Federer will play No. 31 Tomas Berdych, and No. 7 Marin Cilic plays No. 28 Sam Querrey.

Whoever wins the Cilic-Querrey match will top the list for the most attempts before reaching the finals of Wimbledon in the Open era. Querrey has made 10 appearances at Wimbledon, and Cilic 11.

What’s more, there has never been a No. 7 seed (Cilic) in the Wimbledon final in the Open era, and a No. 24 seed (Querrey) has never appeared in a Grand Slam final.

Age is just a number

Federer is angling to become the first man to win eight Wimbledon titles, and just the second man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam event. (Rafael Nadal won the eighth of his 10 French Open titles in 2013.)

Not only that, but Federer (35 years, 342 days) has the chance to be the oldest man in the Open era to win a Wimbledon title. By winning the Australian Open this year, the Swiss star became the second-oldest man to win a Grand Slam title. Ken Rosewall won the 1972 Australian at 37 years, 62 days.

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Querrey me this

Talk about coming out of nowhere. Querrey, who attended Thousand Oaks High, is hoping to become the lowest-ranked Wimbledon finalist since 2003, when No. 48 Mark Philippoussis was the runner-up.

Should he beat Cilic, Querrey would be the lowest-ranked Grand Slam finalist since No. 39 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was runner-up in the 2008 Australian Open.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

Follow Sam Farmer on Twitter @LATimesfarmer

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