Serena blows her top

TIMESLIVE

USA's Serena Williams celebrates winning her match against Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. File photo
Image by: REUTERS/Toby Melville / REUTERS

Wimbledon has long not seen the last of the Williams sisters. Yesterday, both Serena and Venus reached the semifinals of the women's singles.

Serena, 34, won through to her 10th Wimbledon singles semifinal, while Venus, who is two years older, made it through to the last four for the first time since 2009.

Six-time champion Serena was a convincing winner, cruising through her quarterfinal match with a 6-4 6-4 win over Russia's 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The world No1's victory sets up the enticing prospect of a final showdown with sister Venus, a five-time champion.

Serena, who is bidding for a record-equalling Open-era 22nd grand slam title, goes on to face Russian world No50 Elena Vesnina, who defeated Slovak 19th seed Dominika Cibulkova, for a place in Saturday's title match.

But before clinching the victory, Serena showed her tempestuous side. In an event in which players have revolted over rain and toilet breaks, organisers faced claims that they were overlooking safety to get matches played on time.

Serena threatened to sue a referee over slippery playing conditions while two other players erupted with rage after being refused a toilet break.

In ill-tempered scenes on centre court yesterday, referee Andrew Jarrett was targeted by the American midway through her match as she warned the umpire: "If I get hurt, I'm suing him."

She confronted umpire Marija Cicak as light drizzle fell, telling the official: "I'm going to fall. I don't get it. Can't they just close the roof?"

While playing, Serena kept an eye on her sister's match next door, where Venus beat Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 7-6 (5) 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 semifinal of the same grand slam event.

"It was good. I am excited to be able to win and get through, it felt really good," said Serena before heading off to play doubles with her sister. "I am just trying to win my match. I knew I had a tough opponent and one thing I have learnt this year is just to focus on the match."

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 semifinals," she said.

Cibulkova will now be able to go ahead with her wedding planned for Saturday. Her elimination by Vesnina has meant that the Slovak's nuptials are back on track.