Wimbledon: Williams sisters advance to semi-final

Serena and Venus Williams saw-off Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Yaroslava Shvedova respectively on Tuesday to progress to the Wimbledon semi-final.

The Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and widely considered as the most prestigious.

While Serena, 34, is the tournament’s defending champion, Venus, 36, only advanced to her first Wimbledon semi-final since 2009.

“This is an awesome day,” Venus said Tuesday after taking 7-6, 6-2 sets from Shvedova.

“I love playing the game, I always have. Of course when you’re winning matches it’s sweeter but the wins and the losses always lead to this moment.”

Serena on the other hand won 6-4, 6-4, not long after Venus had punched her ticket into Wednesday’s semi-final.

Venus rallied from 5-2 down in the first set to secure a meeting with Angelique Kerber of Germany, who beat Simona Halep.

Shvedova was playing in the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time but was unable to shock the five-time Wimbledon champion.

The sisters could meet in the finals if Serena takes out Russian Elena Vesnina, who defeated Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-2.

She admitted to peeking at the side court scoreboard during breaks in the match.

“I knew Venus was up, and then they showed the score and I was like: yay!” the younger Williams said.

“I’m just trying to win my match, as well as my semi-final. I’ve learned this year to focus on the match and not get carried away.

“Obviously I want her to win so bad. I desperately want her to win if I’m not there.”