For Serena, it would mean she’s participated in the last three major title matches, seven of the past eight.
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Women’s quarter-finals day at Wimbledon saw success for Serena and Venus Williams as well as Angelique Kerber and Elena Vesnina.
Venus and Serena Williams are back to their old ways, dominating on the tennis courts side by side.
Trailing 5-2 in the breaker, Williams remained unflappable and reeled off five points in a row to steal the set.
In Thursday’s semis, Serena will take on Russia’s Elena Vesnina, while Venus will take on Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
Serena and Venus are both in the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon 2009 and they each are one match win away from meeting in a Grand Slam final for the first time since 2009.
Venus beat Serena in the 2000 semi-finals en route to her first title and again in the 2008 final.
Vesnina credited “self-belief” as the driving force behind her best run at a grand slam and she is ready to face Williams for a place in Saturday’s final.
The five-time Wimbledon champion will be playing in the quarterfinals at the All England Club for the 12th time in her career, but the first time since 2010.
The six-time champion beat Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-0 on Centre Court, breaking the Russian’s opening two service games in the first set and all three in the second.
Except Williams probably gets more of a workout when she practices. Really it’s an opportunity because at that point you have experience, you’ve learned a lot so you can really use that to be better.
Vesnina, heading into her Thursday match against Serena, certainly does not fit the bill as a serious spoiler.
Serena’s serve was in fine form, reaching 123 miles per hour and producing 11 aces against the 50th-ranked Vesnina, who was making her major semifinal debut. The first set tiebreak was key for Venus on Tuesday as she over-turned a 2/5 deficit before Shvedova’s game fell apart in th second. The German endured a lull after winning this year’s Australian Open, but she has rediscovered the magic that brought her a maiden major title here at Wimbledon, reaching the semifinals without the loss of a set.
It was Kerber who defeated Serena in the Australian Open final in January, stunning the world No1 with her power game and retrieval skills.
Williams, 36, has suffered in relative silence according to 1999 Wimbledon champion Davenport, hardly discussing her struggles with other players on the circuit. So it’s odd that I have such a strong, hard serve. For me, it’s not enough.
“I love playing the game, I always have”.
Williams said: ‘I’m very happy.
And now she has given herself yet another chance to catch Graf.
“What a tough day on the court, ” Williams added.
The 6-2, 6-0 win took only 49 minutes, the shortest women’s match of the entire tournament.
Williams, an eight-time Wimbledon finalist, has endured a hard struggle with Sjogren s syndrome, an illness that causes fatigue and joint pain, in recent years. Venus will be the slight underdog against Kerber but she will have plenty of well-wishers against the fourth seed.
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“So I want her to do well”. She comes to the net. We all know of Serena’s march to tying Steffi Graf’s open record of 22 Slams, but Venus’s story to me is the more compelling.
