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Wimbledon champion Venus Williams moved a step closer to her fifth Wimbledon singles title today with a straight-sets win over Thai trailblazer Tamarine Tanasugarn.
Williams won 6-4 6-3 on court one to reach the semi-finals and close in on another potential championship match-up with sister Serena.
Williams’ victory over 31-year-old Tanasugarn extended her career record over to 7-0 against Thailand’s first grand slam quarter-finalist.
The seventh-seeded American, who hasn’t dropped a set all tournament, was limping slightly at the end of the match with a hamstring problem.
“It feels a little bit tight,” she said. “I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl. I can deal with it.”
Two-time champion Serena Williams, seeded No.6, was scheduled on Centre Court later against 19-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
The Williams sisters are in opposite halves of the draw and could meet in Saturday’s final. The two have been twice before in the Wimbledon final, with Serena winning both in 2003 and ’04.
“That would be amazing if we both were in the final,” Venus said. “I have to take it one more step and keep playing power tennis.”
The 60th-ranked Tanasugarn pushed Williams as hard as she could but didn’t have enough to cope with her power game.
Williams served eight aces and had one serve at 204kph, while Tanasugarn had no aces and had an average first-serve speed of just 145kph.
Tanasugarn fashioned 10 break points, but converted only once. The key game was the sixth of the first set, when Williams saved six break points – mostly on Tanasugarn errors – and finished with a 203kph service winner to hold for 4-2.
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