Venus Williams Beats Agnieszka Radwanska

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Five-time champion Venus Williams defeated Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday to advance to the Wimbledon semifinals and inch ever closer to another possible showdown with her sister, Serena Williams.

Venus Williams will face top seeded Dinara Safina, who rallied from a set down to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal with a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1 victory over unseeded German Sabine Lisicki.

“It’s not going to be easy, a match against Venus,” Safina said. “She likes to play on grass. I have nothing to lose. I want to go out, enjoy and show my best tennis.”

Fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva also advanced to the semis after a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory over Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

Williams, seeking her third straight Wimbledon title, outhit the 14th-ranked Pole from all parts of the court and proved again that she is the dominant female player on grass.

Williams wore a brace again on her left leg but showed no weakness at all as she ripped 29 winners — compared to six for Radwanska — in a match that lasted just 68 minutes on a sunbaked Court 1.

“I can’t complain,” Williams said. “I’m in the semifinals of Wimbledon, right where I want to be. I just need to take another step forward.”

Williams raced to a 5-0 lead against Radwanska and finished off the first set with back-to-back aces. Williams dropped only two of 18 points on serve in the set.

Radwanska managed to win the first two games of the second set, but Williams regained command and ran off six straight to finish the match, ending with a clean forehand winner.

“She was serving and hitting the ball so strong,” Radwanska said. “Her tennis is so powerful. Today she was playing so good, it was very hard to do anything. If she will play like this, she will [win] one more time this tournament.”

Serena Williams, a two-time Wimbledon champion herself, was due up later on Centre Court against 19-year-old Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. The sisters have met in three Wimbledon finals, including last year, and are on course for a fourth title meeting.

“That would be fantastic,” Venus said. “That’s what Serena and I are hoping for.”

Venus is trying to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win three Wimbledon titles in a row.

Only once in the last nine years has there been a Wimbledon women’s final that didn’t feature at least one of the Williams sisters. The sisters were the only two Grand Slam winners left in the women’s field — Serena has 10 major titles and Venus seven.

Safina looked shaky at times and double-faulted 15 times, including on set point in the tiebreak. But the top-ranked Russian broke the 19-year-old Lisicki four times in the decider and converted her first match point when the German missed a backhand wide.

“I was tough mentally — that was the key today,” Safina said afterwards.

Lisicki needed a medical timeout in the third set to have her right calf massaged and iced.

Dementieva took a 5-0 lead in the first set and converted both of her break points in the second to seal the win in 66 minutes.

Dementieva also reached the Wimbledon semifinals last year and improved her record to 109-41 in Grand Slams. However, she is still looking for her first major title after being runner-up at both the French Open and U.S. Open in 2004.

Temperatures topped 90 degrees on Tuesday, with no need to close the roof on Centre Court.

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