Williams sisters storm into semis at Wimbledon
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SIX-TIME champion Serena Williams reached her 10th Wimbledon semifinal yesterday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Russian 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The 34-year-old world No. 1’s win sets up the enticing prospect of a final showdown with sister Venus, a five-time champion who is also through to the last four.
Serena, who is bidding for a record-equalling Open-era 22nd grand slam title, goes on to face Russian world No. 50 Elena Vesnina, who beat Slovak 19th seed Dominika Cibulkova, for a place in Saturday’s title match.
Venus, 36, made the semifinals for the first time since 2009 earlier by beating Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 7-6 (5), 6-2.
“They showed Venus’s score on court and I was like ‘yaaaay’. I want her to win so bad, but not in the final if I’m there,” said defending champion Serena who took her grand slam match win record to 302 — four behind Martina Navratilova’s all-time mark.
It is the 11th time that the sisters have advanced to the semifinal of the same grand slam event.
On the potential of an all-Williams final, Serena refused to get too far ahead of herself even though she has a 4-0 winning record over Vesnina.
“We don’t really talk too much about it but we are playing doubles later so we are just happy to be in the semifinals,” she said.
Vesnina swept into her first Wimbledon semifinal as the unseeded Russian’s 6-2, 6-2 victory over Cibulkova freed her Slovakian opponent to focus on her impending wedding.
Cibulkova is due to marry fiance Miso Navara in her hometown of Bratislava on Saturday — the same day as the women’s final — and the 27-year-old was willing to postpone the ceremony if she won the quarterfinal.
But world No. 50 Vesnina took advantage of a distracted display from Cibulkova to become the fifth unseeded woman to reach the All England Club semifinals since the grand slams switched to 32 seeds in 2001.
While Vesnina plays Serena tomorrow, Cibulkova can dash back to Slovakia to prepare for her big day.
Serena has won all four of their previous encounters and Vesnina said: “Serena is one of the greatest. I have to go on to the court with all my heart and take my chances.”
Venus, meanwhile, will next face No. 4 Angelique Kerber, the Australian Open champion who held off No. 5 Simona Halep 7-5, 7-6 (2) in the first match on Centre Court, a defensive battle that featured 13 breaks of serve.
Venus, the oldest player in the women’s field, has made a remarkable resurgence in her 19th appearance at Wimbledon. She was already the oldest player to advance to a grand slam quarterfinal since Navratilova made it this far at Wimbledon in 1994 at the age of 37.
Venus won her first title at the All England Club in 2000, and then added titles in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008, but has been slowed in recent years by Sjogren’s syndrome, a condition that can cause joint pain and saps energy.
Kerber has a 3-2 career edge against Venus, but they haven’t faced each other since 2014.
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