Five time-champion Venus Williams reached the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time since 2009 with victory over Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova.
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Vesnina, who is winless in four previous matches against the 21-time major champion, says she can take inspiration from Angelique Kerber’s victory over Williams in this year’s Australian Open final, a match that she watched from a courtside vantage point. “It seemed she was going to win the tie-break, but somehow I walked out with the set”, Venus said.
Fourth seed Kerber has a 3-2 head-to-head lead over Venus and is yet to drop a set on her way to the semis.
If Vesnina beats Serena, it would count as one of the all-time great upsets, but the 29-year-old sounds more like an adoring fan than a player who believes she can spring a surprise. “If she’s giving you chances, you need to be there”.
The sisters have 11 Wimbledon titles between them and last met in the final at the All England Club in 2009.
Top seed Serena has moved into the semifinals for the 10th time with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Cibulkova is due to marry fiance Miso Navara in her hometown of Bratislava on Saturday – the same day as the women’s final – and the 27-year-old was willing to postpone the ceremony if she won her quarter-final.
Moreover, for the last five years she has been afflicted by a debilitating auto-immune disease that at times reduced her to a shadow of the person who lit up Wimbledon five times as champion in eight years. Elegant, charming and graceful, her humility and good will is as genuine as it is perplexing. “You can’t always have this big moment”.
Serena, meanwhile, is bidding for her seventh Wimbledon championship and, of even more significance, her 22nd Grand Slam trophy overall, which would equal Steffi Graf for the most in the Open era (Margaret Court holds the all-time mark of 24).
Both Serena and Venus won their respective quarter-final matches and head to the semi-finals on Thursday. Garbine Muguruza, anointed as Serena’s successor after beating the world number one in the final of the French Open, looked exhausted and lost early at Wimbledon.
However, Venus has stolen the limelight from her sister with her delightful tennis.
“It was good. I am excited to be able to win and get through, it felt really good”.
“I am looking forward to both actually”, Kerber told reporters. “She played great matches”, Kerber said of her next opponent. The Russian has won two Grand Slam doubles titles and two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, and she’s also reached another six other Grand Slam doubles finals plus two more in mixed. I’m really happy that it didn’t break me up.
“If I’m not in the final, obviously I want her to win so bad”. “If you play your best tennis, that’s it, you win”, Witt said in an interview.
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Williams is the oldest woman to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Martina Navratilova was runner-up at Wimbledon at age 37 in 1994. Berdych advanced to the quarterfinals, taking the fifth set to close out the 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8), 6-7(9), 6-3 over fellow countryman Vesely.
