London (AFP)

Czech Barbora Strycova took her time. Exactly sixteen years old. Sixteen years to reach a semifinal Grand Slam at Wimbledon, and become, at age 33, the oldest player to reach for the first time these heights.

"Just wait, but it's worth it": this tweet from Barbora Strycova, who will face Serena Williams Thursday in the semifinals of Wimbledon, is not recent. It dates from August 2016, a few days before it entered the US Open.

This mantra seems to inhabit the 54th world player since always, she had to wait almost a teen to touch her dream.

Former world junior champion in 2002, she joined the pro circuit the following year in 2003 and will take 8 years to win her first title on the circuit, in Quebec City. She will then wait six more years to win another, in Austria in 2017. Her second and so far last trophy.

Two titles, and a 16th place in 2016 ... 13 years after its debut at the big, the record is necessarily below that we hope for a former N.1 world juniors.

- Brilliance -

Of course, there are 22 titles in his CV, and a Fed Cup, acquired during the victory of the Czech Republic against France in 2016. But there is also this black spot: a positive anti-doping control to a stimulant at the tournament in Luxembourg in October 2013. Six months suspension for this gap, that the player had justified by taking supplements.

It was therefore lacking in this career not really linear a stroke of radiance to be told later. A brighter shot than his quarter-final at Wimbledon in 2014, the culmination of his career in Major before this edition.

Strycova had ticked the London meeting on his agenda earlier this year. No doubt she did it to prepare for an exit without regret, which she implied before the fortnight.

"I said I could (retire, ed), not that I will ...", she rectified with a smile on Tuesday after her victory over the Briton Johanna Konta in the quarter-finals.

- "A dream" -

In any case, it seems logical that London, a city she "loves", is the scene of her most beautiful epic. At only two years old, she had come to Wimbledon to visit the museum with her grandparents who lived in the English capital. The sight of the trophy makes him want to return to play there. And 31 years later, she is only two wins back.

"It's always been a dream to play well here, it's happening now, at my age, it's amazing, it shows that if you believe it, it happens," she marveled.

Her age will allow her to stay at least some time in the tennis shelves: at 33, she has dethroned the Italian Roberta Vinci, who had climbed for the first time in a final square at 32, in half final of the US Open 2015.

Obviously the task facing Serena Williams, seven times titled on the London turf, promises to be huge for this fan of the service-volley, which confidently says that "the net is its territory."

"I do not know if this is my last Wimbledon, it's possible," she said. "When I arrived this year, I thought: + it's your 17th Wimbledon, try to enjoy every moment, every day, even if it's a day off, I'm walking on the site, I'm going back to where I played in juniors, "she said. History to remember the world number 1 that she once was.

? 2019 AFP