If Serena can triumph again, only the USA Open would stand in her way of becoming the first player to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam – a sweep of all four majors in the same season – since Steffi Graf in 1988. They’ll play the fifth set Tuesday; the victor faces Marin Cilic. Venus held in an all-important first game of the second set, but Serena broke midway through the second and didn’t look back.
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One can understand why. They have defeated each other more than any other opponent has in their respective careers.
“I knew that playing someone like Venus that’s beaten me the most, I have to be solid,” Serena told reporters. I just held my arms out and he yells automatically, challenge. I had to take chances.
Monday the younger Williams sister, 33, beat 35-year-old Venus in their 26th career meeting, earning a berth in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Serena hit 35 winners to just 13 unforced errors and controlled the match from the beginning.
Serena Williams is a graceful victor. That’s pretty fantastic. I just had an opportunity to reflect on that. For while Venus was able to produce magical shots, which left her sister’s racket flapping in the breeze, she hit flat spots in both sets.
The rest, you can say, is history. When it ended, Serena walked calmly, quietly none of her customary Come on! exuberance to envelop Venus in a long hug.
Serena Williams will now square up to Victoria Azarenka in the quarter-finals after the 23rd seed eased past Eastbourne victor Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-3. “But I’m looking forward to that match-up”. “I thought I was too far back, letting her dictate instead of making her feel my presence”. Federer won the last five meetings with the Frenchman. But both times Azarenka lost.
“Close is not good enough”, Azarenka said.
“Maybe she didn’t have her best day on the last round (against Britain’s Heather Watson), but she found a way to win against an inspired opponent”.
Keys will play Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, the 2012 runner-up, who beat Jelena Jankovic 7-5 6-4.
Elder sibling Venus has won seven grand slam titles and will go down as one of the greatest players to have played the sport.
He’d won four in a row against Anderson without giving his foe a set. Remarkably, there had been three breaks of serve in the first five games.
Kyrgios, a 26th-seeded Australian, reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals past year in his debut appearance.
The pair embraced at the net after the match, which their mother and coach, Oracene Price, didn’t watch from the box. Azarenka is exhausted of nearly winning.
Meanwhile, ex- Wimbledon champion Andy Murray tops the bill on Monday when he faces Croatian 23rd-seed Ivo Karlovic. She never once faced a break point and received 83% of her first serve points along with 22 winners.
“Nothing annoys me about Venus – except for her dog”. “I expected it to be a very hard match”. “It was really good to get it done in straight sets”.
All eight Wimbledon quarter-finalists from previous year are out of the tournament, with Serena and Sharapova the only two from the world’s top 12 who are still standing.
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The 20th-seeded Spaniard, who reached the quarterfinals at the French Open the last two years, beat No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 6-4 Monday in the fourth round. “But, you have to play whoever you play… that’s the draw”. View image | gettyimages.com On paper, Murray’s 6-2, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 win in the third round…
