adminLondon.— Serena and Venus Williams closed in on a fifth all-sister Wimbledon final yesterday while beaten quarter-finalist Dominika Cibulkova prepared to rush back to Slovakia to get ready for her wedding.
Six-time champion Serena reached her 10th semifinal at the All England Club with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Russia 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
She goes on to face Russian world number 50 Elena Vesnina on Thursday for a place in the final. Five-time champion Venus, seeded eight, enjoyed a 7-6 (7 /5), 6-2 victory over Kazakhstan’s world number 96 Yaroslava Shvedova to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal in seven years.
The 36-year-old will now face German fourth seed and Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber, who reached her second Wimbledon semi-final with a 7-5, 7-6 (7 /2) win over Simona Halep, the fifth seed from Romania.
Vesnina made her first semi-final at a major, by seeing off bride-to-be Cibulkova, the Slovak 19th seed, 6-2, 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 semi-finals of the same Grand Slam event.
Serena took a 5-0 career lead over Russian 21st seed Pavlyuchenkova into yesterday’s match, having not dropped a set to her opponent since their first meeting in 2010. But the match was decided in the ninth game of both sets with Williams carving out the only breaks of the match against Pavlyuchenkova, playing in her first Wimbledon quarter-final.
The American finished the match with an 11th ace. “It was good. I am excited to be able to win and get through, it felt really good,” said Serena, who is bidding to win a record-equalling Open era 22nd Grand Slam title. 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.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray was yesterday named in holders Britain’s Davis Cup squad for their quarter-final away to Serbia this month. The 29-year-old almost single-handedly led his country to the title last year but faces a tough schedule with the Belgrade clash taking place the week after the Wimbledon final.
World No 2 Murray is through to the last eight at Wimbledon and will face Joe-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday.
Serbia’s world No 1 Novak Djokovic is highly unlikely to play in the tie after saying he needed to rest after his shock defeat by Sam Querrey at Wimbledon on Saturday. —AFP/Reuters.
Online Reporter