
WIMBLEDON, England, July 1 (UPI) -- Serena and Venus Williams each advanced to the semifinals of The Championships at Wimbledon, pulling just a pair of matches away from an all-Williams final.
Serena Williams, seeded sixth, blitzed 14th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 6-0 while Venus Williams, seeded seventh and the defending champion, beat Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-4, 6-3 in getting through Tuesday's quarterfinals.
Surprising Jie Zheng, having eliminated top-seeded Ana Ivanovic and No. 15 Agnes Szavay, pulled off her third consecutive upset by getting past 18th-seeded Nicole Vaidisova, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, and No. 5-seeded Elena Dementieva beat 21st-seeded Nadia Petrova, 6-1, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, in Tuesday's other matches.
Venus Williams needed just 95 minutes to get by Tanasugarn. Firing eight aces when serving and breaking Tanasugarn's serve four times when not.
She will meet Dementieva in Thursday's semifinals. Dementieva led 6-1, 5-1 before staggering through the rest of the second set. It was far from a perfect match with Dementieva piling up nine double faults and three service breaks against Petrova's 42 unforced errors and six breaks.
Serena Williams shut out Radwanska in 19 minutes in the second set to close out her quarterfinal win. Zheng was nearly as sharp in her third set as she became the first Chinese player to make a Grand Slam semifinal.
If they both win Thursday, the Williams sisters would meet in the Wimbledon finals for the third time. Serena Williams won the previous meetings in 2002 and 2003.
|
|
|
| Additional Sports News Stories | |
BOSTON, June 1 (UPI) --
A team effort led by Kevin Garnett overcame a one-man show by LeBron James Friday and the Boston Celtics held on to defeat Miami 101-91.
|
NEW YORK, June 1 (UPI) --
Rielle Hunter, former mistress of onetime Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, has written a memoir about their affair and the child it produced.
|
MIAMI, June 1 (UPI) --
U.S. weather forecasters say the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be about average, despite the rare late-May landfall of Beryl.
|
UPI horoscopes for Saturday, June 2, 2012.
|
| Stories | Photos | People | Comments |
View Caption