Bopanna and Rodionova, seeded 13th, beat Treat Huey and Alicja Rosolska 6-3, 7-5 in a second round match. While Serena will be heavily favored against Vesnina, who had never previously been to a Grand Slam quarterfinal never mind a semifinal, Venus will be going up against Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.
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But she acknowledged that it would be great to have the match.
German fourth seed Kerber, meanwhile, reached her second Wimbledon semifinal with a 7-5 7-6(7/2) win over Simona Halep, the fifth seed from Romania.
Venus is the oldest women’s semi-finalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994. “She’s such a tough opponent”, Serena said.
There’s really nothing that can prepare anybody for the challenge of facing Serena Williams in a Wimbledon semifinal.
“I want her to win, obviously not if I’m there, but I desperately want her to win”.
“What a day it was against an opponent who was just on fire”, Williams said. “This is what I really enjoying watching”.
Here are two sisters, 16 years after they first met at Wimbledon, four finals on Centre Court played since then and now they’re two wins from making it five. “She was strong. She played a good tennis”.
Venus said they can’t start thinking about a final match up.
Serena, who has suffered painful disappointment in the last three Grand Slams as she chases No. 22, has taken her expected place in the Wimbledon semifinals, where she will be a big favorite against Elena Vesnina. “You have to let fear go”, she said.
“When you read about the syndrome and all the pain that brings, I can not fathom how she’s still doing this, how she gets up to practise, how she musters the strength every day to put herself in a position like she has here”. I knew Venus was up 5-1 and then I saw [the result] on the court [scoreboard], so I was like “Yay”.
“Of course, this is great for both of us but when you’re a player, you’re so focused on the next match and that’s what we’re both focused on”. Serena said. “I’m just trying to win my match, as well as my semifinal”.
Cibulkova’s attentions now turn to her wedding on Saturday, the ceremony having been under threat as the Slovakian moved her way through the rounds at the All England Club.
“I had some good wins, I was close to be in the quarter-final a couple of times, but it was not good enough”.
Kerber is also in a happier place than at the French Open in May where, feeling the weight of expectation after her Melbourne triumph, she lost in the first round to unseeded Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens.
There was little to choose between the two as they slugged it out in the first set, with neither finding much rhythm.
Halep was always coming from behind, before ultimately succumbing with a double-fault to hand over the first set. Both players combined for a total of thirteen break points in their one-and-a-half-hour match; six for Halep and seven for Kerber.
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“But I’m playing like in Australia, really high-class tennis”.
