Top Four Ladies’ Seeds Make Semifinals

For the first time since 2006, the top four seeds in the ladies’ draw have made the semifinals at Wimbledon.

In the top half, top seed and World No. 1 Dinara Safina will battle 5-time defending champ Venus Williams after the Russian escaped a messy quarterfinal against unseeded German Sabine Lisicki. Dina hit 15 double faults and 38 unforced errors in her 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1 win. We’re talking F-UGLY. On the other hand, it was smooth sailing for third seeded V who crushed tricky Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-2 hitting 5 aces and 29 winners against only 6 for her opponent.

In the bottom half, second seeded Serena Williams and fourth seeded Elena Dementieva will play a rematch of their Aussie Open semifinal slugfest which the American won on her way to a 10th major. Both ladies moved through with relative ease: ReRe dismantled rising Belarussian Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-3 while Lena swept by Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-2.

Now, while I picked 3 out of the 4 semifinalist correctly in my preview (though Dina got through instead of Caroline Wozniacki), I still see an all-Williams final this Saturday. But I wouldn’t be surprised if ReRe struggled with the play of Lena since she’s been playing really well and getting through under the radar.

But in the end, the sisters will compete in a second consecutive (and fourth overall) Wimby final!

Rich Rodriguez writes the tennis blog Down the Line!

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