Venus keeps her hat-trick dream alive

VENUS WILLIAMS stayed on a course for a hat-trick of Women’s Singles titles, and another family affair in the final, after breezing into the semi-finals at Wimbledon.

The third seed demolished Poland’s Agnieska Radwanksa in just 68 minutes to earn a last four clash with top seed Dinara Safina.

Williams is looking to clinch a sixth Wimbledon title and become the first female player since Steffi Graf to win the tournament three years in a row.

She has now also won 32 consecutive sets at the All England Club – a run stretching back to the third round in 2007.

“That first set for me was almost perfect,” Venus said after her routine 6-1, 6-2 victory over Radwanska, the 11th seed. “Do I feel invincible? I’d like to say yes, but I really do work at it. Day-in and day-out. To clock these matches out takes a lot of work.”

While Venus strolled through to the last four, her opponent Safina was forced to battle back from a set down to beat unseeded German Sabine Lisicki 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 and keep her hopes of a maiden Grand Slam title alive.

Venus is now also holding out hope of a fourth all-Williams final on Saturday after sister Serena, a two-time champion, proved too strong and classy against Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, easing to a 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Second seed Serena now takes on Elena Dementieva, who ensured all top four seeds made the semi-finals with a routine 6-2, 6-2 victory over Italian Francesca Schiavone.

WOMEN’S SINGLES SEMI-FINAL DRAW
              Dinara Safina (Rus) (1)
                             v
              Venus Williams (USA) (3)