Safarova, 28, reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon past year and made it to her first Grand Slam singles final last month when she lost to Serena Williams in the French Open final.
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As they remain at the top of the women’s game the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, once again took tennis from the court and placed it in the centre of a debate on age as well as sibling affections and rivalry. “I really have to be careful on that and trying to put as many balls as I can to the other side”. It definitely doesn’t get easier to play her but I was thinking “I’m 33 and she’s just turned 35 and I don’t know how many more moments like this we’ll have”. She’ll have her hands full on Tuesday against Williams, although Azarenka hasn’t yet dropped a set at Wimbledon, including a 6-2, 6-3 victory over No. 30 Belinda Bencic. All eight Wimbledon quarter-finalists from a year ago are out of the tournament, while Serena and Sharapova are the only two from the world’s top 12 who are still standing. That would also leave the 20-time Grand Slam champion needing only to win the U.S. Open in August to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1988 to land all four majors in the same year.
LONDON – It was yet another awkward encounter that is unlikely to live long in the memory but Venus Williams showed that she was no sore loser when she whispered some “sisterly words” into Serena’s ear as they embraced at the net at Wimbledon on Monday. Williams has a 16-3 career advantage against Azarenka, including a 9-0 record in Grand Slam matches.
When she sealed the first set with a clean-as-a-whistle forehand pass a fourth career win from 20 matches against Williams looked not only possible, but likely. “So when that moment is over, it will be over”. Venus had double faulted to take it to love-40 and Serena wasted no time ending things.
Vandeweghe took the fourth round contest to match point with an ace, then won it with an unreturned serve. It will be a repeat of their quarterfinal match at the All England Club back in 2008. Each sister has won Wimbledon five times.
“I was hoping to get out of the blocks fast”, Federer said. She’s looking to secure her second such “Slam” with a Wimbledon win. It was their first meeting at a Slam since Wimbledon in 2009. “At some point we won’t be playing forever, but clearly we’re still playing at a high level”, Venus said in her press conference.
In early men’s play, Richard Gasquet held off 20-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios 7-5, 6-1, 6-7 (7) 7-6 (6) to advance to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time since making it to the semifinals in 2007.
The Russian cruised into the last eight, beating unseeded Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-4.
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Meanwhile, British third seed Andy Murray cut Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic down to size with a 7-6 (9/7), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win to make the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the eighth successive year. “I knew that playing someone like Venus, who’s beaten me the most, I had to cut down on my unforced errors”.
