Venus Williams, Kerber reach Wimbledon semifinals

She will face another Russian Elena Vesnina, who eased past Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 to reach her first ever Grand Slam semifinal.

Venus – at 36 the oldest woman to make the last four at Wimbledon since a 37-year-old Martina Navratilova in 1994 – next faces Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber, who was a 7-5 7-6 (7-2) victor over 2014 French Open finalist Simona Halep.

Venus Williams, 36, triumphantly reached the Wimbledon Semi-Finals on July 5 after beating unseeded Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.

“I am playing my best tennis right now”, Kerber, who is yet to drop a set in the championship, told Wimbledon website.

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. “If you’re Serena Williams, I guess that happens a lot, but as Venus Williams this is an awesome day”. The Kazakh managed to hold her next game after some unforced errors by the American but she was still two breaks behind. “Venus is such a tough opponent I want her to win so bad – not in the final if I am there, but if I’m not, I do”. They trained in particularly steamy, for this time of year, Florida, where he said the seven-time grand slam champion “was putting in the work, grinding on and off the court”.

“That’s one thing the past four years I’ve been really doing a lot of, just really taking a deep breath, re-collecting myself”, the No. 1-ranked Williams continued. The good part is I always felt like I had the game. But how can you not give her a shot to win that?

The Slovakian was so sure she would not go all the way at the All England Club that she booked her nuptials with Miso Navara in Bratislava on finals day.

“I’m just trying to win my match, I had a tough opponent today and have a tough semi-final, ” Serena told the BBC. I had some good wins.

The 21-time grand slam victor nabbed the final three games of the first set against former junior No. 1 Pavlyuchenkova – they trained together in the off-season in 2012 – won 90% of her first-serve points and didn’t face a break point.

Serena Williams looked out of sorts in the second round against fellow American Christina McHale but has since won in straight sets, an ominous sign for Vesnina even if the world No. 1 unexpectedly lost in the semifinals at the 2015 U.S. Open and in the finals of this year’s Australian Open and French Open.

Shvedova led 5-2 in the tiebreaker before collapsing this way: forehand long, backhand wide, forehand into the net, forehand long.

Serena never faced a break point Tuesday, winning the last three games of each set to extend her record against Pavlyuchenkova to 6-0.

Vesnina’s power and accuracy on Wimbledon’s Court One saw her comfortably ease past the Slovak, who may have had to postpone her wedding on Saturday (Sunday NZT) had she made it through.

Both Vesnina and Cibulkova won 9-7 third-set thrillers Monday but Vesnina, like Shvedova a grand slam doubles champion, clearly had more left in the tank. Every single point. Sometimes I just need to take a deep breath and relax. Venus, meanwhile, is bidding for a sixth crown at SW19.