Williams sisters ease into semi-finals

VENUS WILLIAMS stayed on course for her fifth Wimbledon title eight years after her first – and declared she is still the same girl who jumped for joy on Centre Court back in 2000.

The defending champion set up a semi-final against fifth seed Elena Dementieva and a possible final against sister Serena by overpowering veteran Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-4 6-3 on Court One yesterday.

Reflecting on the passage of time between her maiden All England Club victory and the present day, 28-year-old Venus said: “I’m not sure what that girl in 2000 was thinking. I think she was reading a Harry Potter book.

“You know, the 27-year-old Venus also read the Harry Potter book, so not much has changed.”

The major difference yesterday centred around the vast gulf in quality between Tanasugarn’s serve and that of Willams.

While Tanasugarn barely troubled the 100mph mark, seventh seed Williams regularly sent down bombs in excess of 120mph.

The American broke twice in both sets, and enjoyed break points in all bar three of Tanasugarn’s 10 service games.

Venus was only broken once, immediately after doing the same to Tanasugarn in game three, and was impressive in pulling out serves up to 127mph to save a further nine break points, including six in game six.

“I think my key has been serve in this tournament,” said Venus, after shrugging off concerns over a left hamstring strain.

“Any time I’m down break point or double break, my serve gets me out of it.”

The unprecedented demise of the top four women’s seeds has seen the elder Williams installed as favourite for the title.

Venus added: “It’s nice to be favourite, that’s for sure.

“But I’m going to go out there and work just as hard as if I wasn’t the favourite.”

Meanwhile, Venus’s sister Serena kept alive her hopes of facing her sister in Saturday’s final with a performance of power and precision to overwhelm Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwanska.

Serena performed as if she had a point to prove to hammer the world number eleven 6-4 6-0.

And the apparent inevitability of another all-Williams final was underlined in a post-match press conference which sounded more like a preview of a Saturday showdown than a tee-up of two separate semi-finals.

Serena joked: “I’ve been watching the competition a little bit. She’s your opponent and you scout your opponent. I’m going to sabotage her and eat all the Wheaties so she doesn’t have any chance.”

In fact Serena is next up against China’s Zheng Jie, the wild-card winner over Nicole Vaidisova who despite her creditable run to the last four will surely not be able to live with Williams in this kind of irresistible form.

Having already swiftly dispatched Radwanska’s younger sister Urszula in a previous round, Williams was in no mood to hang around, visibly raising the intensity of her game for what ought to have been a greater test.

Elena Dementieva made hard work of her quarter-final match against fellow Russian Nadia Petrova to set up a semi-final meeting with Venus.

Dementieva is the top seed left in the women’s draw after the exits of top four Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova and looked on course for a comfortable victory on Centre Court when she led 6-1 5-1.

However, Dementieva’s game went into freefall and 21st seed Petrova took advantage of her opponent’s sudden nervousness to fight back to 6-5 and after saving two match points in the tie-break won the second set 7-6 (8-6). “I’m extremely happy,” Dementieva said. “I’m in the semi-finals for the first time in my life and it’s a great feeling.’’

Elsewhere Zheng Jie saw off 18th seed Nicole Vaidisova in three sets.

Zheng became the first Chinese player into the semi-final of a grand slam as she ousted 18th seed Vaidisova and revealed she will donate all her winnings from this year’s Wimbledon to victims of the Sichuan earthquake.