Each sister has won Wimbledon five times.
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If Serena does complete the calendar Grand Slam, she would draw level with Graf on 22 major titles – second only to Margaret Court’s 24.
The Belarusian was the sharpest out of the two at the start of the match as she surged to a 4-1 lead. Next up for Keys is a Wimbledon rematch with Agnieszka Radwanska.
The unseeded Canadian beat Viktor Troicki of Serbia 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 Monday in the fourth round.
While the final score – 6-4, 6-3 – makes it appear that Serena coasted, the truth is Venus had her moment.
When it was over the sisters shared an extended embrace at net.
“There was reason to believe for Venus, who won their most recent match in Montreal last summer and has worked her way back up to 16th in the world rankings”. “You just play for the competition and enjoy the moment”.
Digging deeper into that set of numbers, Serena also has a 7-2 Grand Slam tournament Finals’ matches record against Venus. “The ultimate”, summed up seven-times grand slam victor Venus.
Serena sent down 10 aces to just two from Venus, while also avoiding any double faults. “It’s never easy to play someone that you love and care about”.
“Just having an opportunity to watch her win matches, watch her go to the top, and me wanting to be there because she was there”.
“We’ve played a lot of years and we’ve tried to be entertaining. It was kind of surreal”.
U-S-A party: She joins compatriots Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe in the quarterfinals, marking the first time three American women have been this far since 2004, when Serena was joined by Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati in the round of eight.
Never a fan of losing to her sibling – who would be?
“I think it’s been a tremendous effort for her to get to this stage of the tournament”, Sharapova said.
“All the other ones I wanted to challenge, she kept hitting the lines”.
“I definitely am the type of person that likes to have a laugh at themselves, especially when it looks like I have done something stupidly ridiculous”, the 23-year-old said.
“Not only did we fulfil our dreams, we both won it five times. And I was able to do that”.
When Venus hit a backhand long on break point to end the match, Serena showed no emotion and did not celebrate.
Older sister stood tall, fending off another break point in the third game, flattening a biting forehand into the corner and following it forward for a smash.
When were off the court, shes Serena, my sister, Venus said. “But she’s a great player – one of the greatest players of all time”.
Venus talked up the chances of her sister winning in SW19 when she continued: “Her serve is consistent”. Given they have probably the two pre-eminent players of their age, there should have been more classic matches between them.
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In her final service game Venus found herself 40-0 down, her younger sister’s power and consistency simply too much and Serena will now face her 2012 semi-final opponent Victoria Azarenka, who beat Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-3. Another Wimbledon title will put her just one behind Graf, who holds the Open era record with 22. Now the Venus serve was constantly under serious pressure.
