Wimbledon 2016: Sisters on collision course

London: The Williams sisters could be headed for another meeting in a Grand Slam final. Venus Williams made it back to the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time in seven years on Tuesday, while defending champion Serena Williams advanced to her 10th final four at the All England Club. Mounting another title run at the age of 36, five-time champion Venus beat Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 7-6 (5), 6-2, advancing to the semifinals for the first time since 2009 and first time at any major since the 2010 U.S. Open.

From 2-5 down in the tiebreaker, she ran off five straight points to take the first set, then rolled through the second set on No.1 Court. She’s one win away from returning to the Wimbledon final for the first time since 2009, where she lost to Serena. A short while later, Serena beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-4, 6-4 on Centre Court, finishing the match with a 123 mph ace, to extend her record in Wimbledon quarterfinals to 10-2.

Venus will next face No.4 Angelique Kerber, the Australian Open champion who held off No. 5 Simona Halep 7-5, 7-6 (2) in the first match on Centre Court, a defensive battle that featured 13 breaks of serve, including eight in a row in the first set. Serena will play Elena Vesnina, a 50th-ranked Russian who defeated Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-2, becoming the first unseeded women’s semifinalist at Wimbledon since 2010. Asked about the possibility of meeting her sister and doubles partner in Saturday’s final, Serena smiled. “It would be great,” she said.

Sania-Dodig out, Paes-Hingis sail:

Top seeded Indo-Croatian pair of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig crashed out of the mixed doubles event after losing to unseeded British duo of Neal Skupski and Anna Smith 6-4, 3-6, 5-7 in a match that lasted over two hours. Leander Paes and Martina Hingis won their mixed doubles first round match though. The Indo-Swiss combination beat Artem Sitak of New Zealand and Laura Siegemund of Germany 6-4, 6-4.

Sania-Dodig paid for their profligacy as they bungled on multiple match points in the final set before the unheralded British came out trumps. Both pairs traded a couple of breaks in the first set before the top seeds got a third break, which enabled them to close the set at 6-4. Sania and Dodig looked on course for an easy victory but Neal and Anna came back strongly, getting a break and winning the second set 6-3. The Indo-Croat pair had problems with their second serve.