SERENA AND VENUS Williams closed in Tuesday on a fifth all-sister Wimbledon final 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 semi-final 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 semi-final 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 Cibulkova — whose wedding is scheduled for Saturday — 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 feeling ace -
Serena took a 5-0 career lead over Russian 21st seed Pavlyuchenkova into Tuesday’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.
“We don’t really talk too much about it but we are playing doubles later so we are just happy to be in the semi-finals,” she said.
Venus is the oldest women’s semi-finalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994.
Venus, who won the last of her seven Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2008, is back in the last-four of a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2010 US Open.
The eight-time Wimbledon finalist trails 3-2 in her five career meetings with 28-year-old Kerber, who won their only meeting on grass in the 2012 Olympics at Wimbledon.
“I love playing the game. When you are winning matches it makes it that much sweeter,” the German said.
“You can’t always have these big moments. I guess if you are Serena Williams it happens a lot, but for Venus Williams this is an awesome day.”
- Cibulkova heading for a wedding -
The first set tiebreak was key for Venus on Tuesday as she over-turned a 2/5 deficit before Shvedova’s game fell apart in the second set.
Kerber now has 33 match wins in 2016, joint-best with Cibulkova.
“I have had a great year so far. I think I am playing my best tennis. Hopefully I can play a few more matches here,” she said.
The 28-year-old Kerber, who also made the semi-finals in 2012, came out on top in a big-hitting battle with Halep, who was a semi-finalist in 2014.
Cibulkova is due to marry fiance Miso Navara in her hometown of Bratislava on Saturday — the same day as the women’s final — and the 27-year-old was willing to postpone the ceremony if she won her quarter-final.
But 29-year-old Vesnina took advantage of a distracted display from Cibulkova to become the fifth unseeded woman to reach the All England Club semi-finals since the Grand Slams switched to 32 seeds in 2001.
“Serena is one of the greatest. I always watch her matches,” said Vesnina who dropped out of the top 100 last year.
“I have to go on to the court with all my heart and take my chances.”
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It was a stupid statement by the county board and embarrassing for most Cork Gaa fans. They should have said that Cork came close and will learn from it and move on. Blaming the ref is childish and embarrassing. However, I think what they said regarding Cuthbert was correct. It is terrible that he got so much personal abuse from keyboard warriors. He tried his best and made some progress with the team. Going forward John Cleary is the right man for the job and I hope he takes up the role sooner rather than later. The Rebels will rise again. It Will just take time.
I keep reading how Cork GAA fans are so embarrassed by this. I am a Cork GAA fan and I am not embarrassed, I am absolutely delighted with this statement. Anything that shows up the county board for what they are the better.
Many from out side the county didn’t understand the need for the strikes, to many it appeared to be a team of primadonnas full of their importance and blaming the county board for their failures was just a convenient excuse for their failures. It seemed crazy to blame the demise of Cork GAA on the County Board and Frank. These games were lost on the field surely but know Cork are setup to fail in many cases. Palls of the board get the top coaching positions whether they are the best candidates or not.
Finally those outside the county might be starting to see what we are dealing with. It’s a shame that airing our dirty laundry in public seems to be the only way but unfortunately it is. Anything that exposed the ineptitude of our county board and puts pressure on Frank and co is a good thing in my book.
what a shower of dopes
Unbelievable in this day and age that a county board could let a childish statement out to the media and expect no fall out from it. While some of their grievances are well merited they should of held fire and not embarrass the proud people of cork. Who in their right mind would let their name go forward for the senior job now. Until their is a complete clear out of county board officials this I am afraid is par for the course going forward. Finally I think the clubs of cork will react properly to this embarrassment and finally do something about it.
hahaha can’t believe that one
One word of advice for the Cork county board whose effortless teams don’t need you…retire.