(REUTERS) – Venus Williams slumped to her heaviest ever defeat at Wimbledon against the lowest ranked player left in the draw when she was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarter-finals. For a stunned Williams, the five-time champion, it was her biggest loss at the All England Club since her debut in 1997 and was the first time since 2006 the American had failed to make the final.
Those who had feared a mis-match between world number two Williams and Pironkova, ranked 80 places below her, were quickly proved wrong as the Bulgarian produced an inspired display, returning practically everything her opponent could fire at her.
“It’s like a dream, coming here. I never thought I’d play that well and come this far in the tournament,” Pironkova said.
“I think I played pretty well today, I’m very happy with my game.
“I have one win over her and thought I could win and I was going for it,” added the 22-year-old who scored a three-set win over Venus at the Australian Open four years ago.
Williams had saved two match points serving at 5-2 down but defeat for the out-of-sorts American seemed inevitable and Pironkova sealed victory when a forehand volley drifted wide.
As Pironkova rolled on to her back in disbelief, the delighted Court One crowd leapt to their feet and erupted in cheers. Even Williams’ father Richard felt compelled to applaud her performance.
Pironkova, who had previously never made it past the second round of a grand slam, became the first Bulgarian woman to reach a grand slam semi-final since tennis turned professional.
She will play Russian Vera Zvonareva for a place in Saturday’s final.
It became clear from the start that Williams was not going to have things all her own way. Pironkova sent her scampering around the court, matched her from the baseline and was comfortable varying the speed of her shots.
Williams’ powerful serve deserted her. On several occasions she let the ball drop again after throwing it in the air and twice in the match served consecutive double faults.
Pironkova broke for a 4-2 lead in the first set when Williams, whose shrieks seemed to get louder as the pressure on her increased, put a backhand out.
At 5-2, two double faults helped put Williams at 40-0 down and although the 30-year-old was able to level the scores, Pironkova took the set with a lovely backhand down the line.
To shouts of ‘come on V’, Williams found enough form to break Pironkova for 2-1 in the second set but the Bulgarian held her nerve and repeated the feat in the next game.
With Williams visibly sagging, Pironkova broke again in the sixth game when the American put a backhand out.
She made hard work of serving out the match, with one wayward effort landing closer to the baseline than the service line but was finally rewarded for her mammoth effort when Williams once again sprayed the ball wide.