Serena and Venus – both qualified for the semi-final of the ongoing Wimbledon championships on Thursday and will each win £500,000 should they fail to reach the final.
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Vesnina said of Serena after reaching her first major semi-final: “You have to give all your heart and fight for every single point and just use your chances because it is really hard to break her, especially here on grass”.
The Wimbledon eight seed avoided an upset from Shvedova, who reached the quarterfinals by defeating two seeded players in her draw with a 7-6, 6-2 straight sets win.
But in the past two years, she has worked her way back into the top 10, won titles and started to advance further in Grand Slam tournaments. Of the challenge from her 29-year-old Russian opponent, she said: “I’ll be ready for it”. They have not met in a Grand Slam final since, but they could finally do so again on Saturday if both beat their semifinal opponents.
Asked to compare her current level of play to that of the past, Williams shook her head, shut her eyes and laughed. This year, that changed as she emerged back onto the scene winning numerous tournaments before joining her sister in London.
But whatever Venus’ fate today, Davenport believes she’s defied all logic. She got them involved in the last game.
Eight-time Wimbledon finalist Venus trails 3-2 in her five career meetings with 28-year-old Kerber, who won their only meeting on grass in the 2012 Olympics at Wimbledon.
“Oh wow, what a tough day on the court”. Williams knows that Vesnina, a two-time Grand Slam doubles champion, is an accomplished player with an all-court game, but the American says she’ll take confidence from having won all four of their previous meetings.
She was on fire, but when you can walk to the net as the victor thats the dream. I think she’s playing better every match, and I think she sees – with her belief – that she can still play and beat girls. When you are winning matches it makes it that much sweeter. Venus has always been the picture of professionalism and is so well liked on the tour that everyone is rooting for her. “If you’re Serena Williams, I guess that happens a lot”.
Their spectacular achievements remind the 1999 Wimbledon champion Lindsay Davenport of Martina Navratilova’s success in her mid-thirties.
Elena Vesnina is pledging to play the party pooper role and scupper tennis romantics’ hopes of another all-Williams Wimbledon final. This year as well, just getting through no matter what, playing tough. Her ratio of points won on the 67% of occasions on which she got her first attempt in was a brutal 90%.
In the Gentlemen quarter-final matches, Roger Federer will play Marin Cilic, while Novak Djokovic conqueror, Sam Querrey, will play Milos Raonic.
Elena Vesnina ran away in a 6-2, 6-2 romp over 19th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal, then confirmed that she was just as stunned as anyone else to see herself in the final four.
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Sister Serena, up against Elena Vesnina in the other semi, is not too far behind in age and almost 35.
