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Williams sisters look set to clash in final
The Williams sisters remain on course to meet in Saturday's Wimbledon final thanks to comfortable wins in their respective quarter-final matches yesterday.
Venus raced into the last four with a 6-1 6-2 victory over Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska on Court One, and was soon joined in the next round by younger sibling Serena, who was a 6-2 6-2 winner against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Even before the tournament began, the duo were favourites to contest their fourth final on Wimbledon's famous Centre Court.
And few would bet against that happening again, after both players brushed aside seeded opposition today with consummate ease.
Even Venus, who won the title last year by beating Serena, finds it hard to imagine anything other than another showdown with her sister.
"I just think the style of game Serena and I play, we play better than the other women," said Venus.
"We're just very aggressive. I think that shows in our results."
Both semi-finals on Thursday will be American-Russian affairs with Venus facing world number one Dinara Safina, pictured inset,while Serena will take on Elena Dementieva.
Safina faced the hardest test in the quarter-finals today, coming back from a set down against surprise package Sabine Lisicki to win 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 6-1 in almost two-and-a-half hours on a sweltering Centre Court.
Much has been made of Safina's ranking and the fact she has yet to win a major, although she has finished as runner-up in three grand slam finals.
But after reaching her first Wimbledon semi-final, the Russian hopes she has silenced her critics.
"I've never got so far here so whenever I win a match, I'm really happy," she said.
"But I'm enjoying it, taking one match at a time and at the moment it's working.
"I hope people won't say now I'm number one without a grand slam title. I've been in the semis at all four grand slams so I think that's something impressive."
Dementieva's 6-2 6-2 victory over Italian Francesca Schiavone means the top four seeds are all through to the semi-finals.
Like the Williams sisters, Dementieva has yet to drop a set at this year's Wimbledon but the Russian is expecting things to be much tougher against Serena.
"I think it was good to win all these matches in two sets and save some energy," she explained.
"I wish I'd had a little bit more of a fight though before this round. We'll see if I'm going to be ready for the big one."
Meanwhile home favourite Andy Murray was due back on Centre Court this afternoon for his quarter-final against Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Murray defeated Ferrero at Queen's three weeks ago but the former French Open champion is in a rich vein of form and playing with confidence again for the first time in years.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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