London’s Noskova reaches maiden Wimbledon semi-final | JQJO

LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Linda Noskova reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon on Wednesday, becoming the second Czech woman into the last four this year with a 6-3 7-5 victory over Belgium’s Elise Mertens on Court One. The 21-year-old ninth seed, who has been climbing steadily up the rankings this season, dictated the contest in baking lunchtime heat with aggressive returns, precise groundstrokes and well-timed drop shots that repeatedly pushed the 30-year-old Belgian onto the defensive. Noskova finally cracked Mertens’s resistance in the eighth game of the opening set, then again in the 11th game of the second, before sealing the match with a strong serve that Mertens steered wide.

Mertens, seeded 25th in singles and a six-time Grand Slam doubles champion, had to work hard to stay in touch throughout the match, repeatedly facing pressure on her delivery and saving nine break points before conceding the crucial breaks. Noskova’s victory puts her into Thursday’s semi-finals alongside compatriot Karolina Muchova, giving the Czech Republic two players in the last four at the All England Club. She will face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, who defeated Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the quarter-finals, with a place in Saturday’s Wimbledon women’s singles final at stake.

The Orionid meteor shower will peak at two p.m. ET Wednesday, with best viewing between midnight and dawn Wednesday and Thursday. A bright waxing gibbous moon, 76 percent illuminated, will set a few hours before sunrise, allowing up to twenty meteors per hour to be seen. Orionids travel at forty‑one miles per second, producing luminous fireballs. The shower occurs each October as Earth crosses Halley’s comet debris trail, which completes an orbit every seventy‑six years.

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Julia Stiles performed a contemporary routine on Dancing With the Stars Dedication Night, joined by her 10 Things I Hate About You castmates to tribute late co‑star Heath Ledger. The routine echoed Ledger’s 1999 performance in the film, where his character sang to Stiles’ character from the bleachers. Stiles described the moment as trippy, noting her age difference and the emotional impact of revisiting the film’s legacy. Ledger died in January 2008 at the age of twenty‑eight.

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