Wimbledon semifinals are Williams affair

WIMBLEDON, England, July 2 (UPI) -- Serena and Venus Williams head to Wimbledon's Center Court in separate semifinals Thursday with an eye on meeting there again in the finals.

Venus Williams, the tournament's defending champion and seeded seventh this year, takes on No. 5-seeded Elena Dementieva in one semifinal while Serena Williams, the No. 6 seed, faces surprising wild-card entrant Jie Zheng.

The Williams sisters have been the most consistent players in the women's half of the draw. Neither has lost a set in the tournament.

Venus Williams and Dementieva take the court first Thursday. Williams is 5-2 against Dementieva in her career, including a win in the Gold Medal match at the 2000 Olympics. Dementieva is appearing in her first Wimbledon semifinal while Williams is 6-0 in The Championships' semis and owns four Wimbledon titles.

The two finals she lost were to her sister. Serena Williams defeated Venus in 2002 and 2003 for title at Wimbledon. Serena was also the runner-up in 2004.

She has played Zheng once, beating her in the first round of the 2004 Wimbledon tournament.

Zheng is the first Chinese player to make it to the semifinals of a Grand Slam event and the first wild-card entrant to makes Wimbledon's semis. If she wins Thursday, she would be playing for the Wimbledon title Saturday, her 25th birthday.