But, just when it seemed the Williams’ duopoly in south-west London would never end, in 2011 Venus was struck down by Sjogren’s syndrome, an illness that causes fatigue and joint pain, and Serena’s win over her sister at Wimbledon in 2009 remains their last title clash.
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The American sisters advanced to the quarterfinals in the doubles tournament on Tuesday, beating sixth-seeded Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 6-4, 6-3 on No. 3 Court a short time after each reached the semifinals of the women’s singles competition.
Now, almost two decades after Venus made her Wimbledon debut, the Williams’ could battle it out in a grand slam final.
Women’s quarter-finals day at Wimbledon saw success for Serena and Venus Williams as well as Angelique Kerber and Elena Vesnina.
But Kerber dominated the tiebreak, getting to match point when Halep was bamboozled by a net cord before she sealed victory after taking advantage of a backhand error by her opponent.
The former world No. 1 has won all eight previous semi-finals at Wimbledon, including the 2000 decider when she defeated 18-year-old Serena en route to her first title at SW19.
The five-time champion will play the Australian Open victor Angelique Kerber who knocked out the fifth-seed Simona Halep of Romania 7-5, 7-6 (7-2) in 90 minutes in the last four.
Later, six-time champion Serena Williams reached her 10th semi-final with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Russian Federation 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchen-kova.
“It just means that she has a lot of perseverance”.
“You can’t always have this big moment”.
There wasn’t much drama in the quartet of women’s matches Tuesday, although Venus was perilously close to dropping her opening set against the 96th-ranked Shvedova, now 0-3 in major quarterfinals.
“It was good. I am excited to be able to win and get through, it felt really good”.
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.
“The McHale match really helped me”, Sportingnews.com’s Peter Hanson quoted her as saying.
Top seeded Indo-Croatian pair of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig crashed out of the mixed doubles event after losing to unseeded British duo of Neal Skupski and Anna Smith 6-4, 3-6, 5-7.
Now, at an age when most of her contemporaries had long since called it quits, the 36-year-old has willed herself back into contention for an eighth Grand Slam crown.
“What a tough day it was on the court”, she said. “No matter how things are stacked against you, you just have to every time”. Everyone plays well…She could have easily won that match, as well. “She has a really good grass court game”, said Williams, attempting to defend the last of her major titles, and – for the fourth consecutive slam – equal Steffi Graf’s elusive Open era record of 22.
“This is the best I’ve seen Venus feel and play”, tennis great Billie Jean King told USA TODAY Sports.
On the men’s side, the final quarterfinal spot went to 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych, who posted a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8), 6-7 (9), 6-3 victory over fellow Czech Jiri Vesely. “I think you never want to bet against a seven-times grand slam champ”, said another former world No1 Lindsay Davenport. “Then you earn your ranking again”, Vesnina said.
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“Real life is what Hollywood is based on, so hey, let’s do it”, she said.
