Venus and Serena Williams are favorites to reach the Wimbledon ladies final, but No.5 seed, Elena Dementieva is the highest seed remaining in the ladies draw.
That’s right, second-seed Jelena Jankovic fell to unseeded Tamarine Tanasugarn in straight sets, and No.14 seed, Agnieszka Radwanska downed fourth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in three. Even given the specter of Jankovic’s bum wheel, one would expect her to pull it out against the 31-year-old veteran. Pssst, a secret: Tanasugarn won the S’Hertogenbosch tune-up less than two weeks ago, beating the red-hot Dinara Safina in the final. Apparently that win was no fluke.
Venus and Serena moved on in straight sets, and most talking heads have them playing in the final already. A note of caution before you bet the house: Even if Venus gets past Tanasugarn, which is no gimme (despite Venus’ 6-0 record against her), she is likely to face Dementieva in the semis. Given Dementieva’s play of late, she shouldn’t be a walkover either. Still, Venus has to be considered the favorite.
Serena has scrapper Radwanska next, and this 18-year-old can flat out ball-bash with the best of ‘em. They’ve played once on clay and Serena tuned up the youngster, but Radwanska may be looking for payback, and has no pressure on her. Still, Serena’s experience should carry her through.
If she gets past Radwanska, Serena will face the winner of Jie Zheng versus No.18 seed Nicole Vaidisova. Vaidisova gets the edge in this one, primarily due to her 2-0 record against Zheng. But they haven’t played since 2006 and Zheng is playing as well as she has since she reached her highest ranking of No.33 in the world in 2006.
No one would expect Serena to lose to either player though, so a Williams sisters final is a good possibility.
