Venus, Serena a step away from Wimbledon finals

The women's semifinals at Wimbeldon are set for today, with Venus and Serena Williams favored to set up their first all-sibling final since 2003 Wimbledon.

Defending champion and four-time winner Venus is due up first against Elena Dementieva, while Serena was paired against Zheng Jie, the first Chinese player to make a Grand Slam semifinal. If both Americans win, they'll play in the Wimbledon final for the first time since 2003, when Serena beat Venus in the championship match for the second straight year.

"She won last year," eight-time Grand Slam champion Serena said of Venus. "But I'm not going to sit here and say she's the favorite when I'm still in the tournament. That's not me."

Serena is 8-7 against her sister overall, but a dominant 5-1 in Grand Slam finals.

"We're extremely motivated by each other, win or loss, on or off the court," said Venus, a four-time Wimbledon champion.

On Wednesday, the sisters beat Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek 6-4, 6-3 in the women's doubles quarterfinals, whispering tactics to each other on occasion but otherwise keeping calm despite trailing 3-0 in the second set.

"I think the doubles gets us really amped for the singles, and the next day we're all tuned and ready to go," said Venus, who has won six Grand Slam doubles titles with her sister.

Dementieva, Venus' next opponent, struggled for long periods before beating Nadia Petrova in three sets in the quarterfinals. But she's not worried about her next match.

"She's the defending champion. It's all pressure on her," Dementieva said of Venus, who is 6-0 in Wimbledon semifinal matches and 56-7 overall at the grass-court tournament. "I really have nothing to lose."

Zheng, ranked 133rd, is this year's surprise in the women's draw, reaching the last four with a run that includes a third-round win over top-seeded Ana Ivanovic, the French Open champion.

By beating Nicole Vaidisova, Zheng became the first Chinese player to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament, and is also the first wild-card entrant to reach the women's semis at Wimbledon and second at any major tournament.

"I never think I can (reach) the semifinal," said Zheng, who is playing at Wimbledon for only the third time and is 0-1 against Serena in her career after a first-round loss at the All England Club in 2004.

"I hope I can do better when I'm playing her," Zheng later said through a translator. "And, of course, I also wish to win. But for now I just want to simply keep my hope as simple as possible."

Serena won't be taking the 24-year-old Chinese player lightly.

"I've been watching her play," Serena said. "I think she's doing a fabulous job and I don't think it's luck."

Serena and Venus have won six of the last eight Wimbledon titles. Neither has dropped a set at Wimbledon so far, and their power games have set them apart from the rest of the women's field.

"I've been working really hard lately. I'm just waiting on the results to come," Serena said. "I deserve this, because I don't think anyone's been working harder than me, except for maybe Venus. I mean, that girl works even harder than I do."

If they both advance and set up yet another all-in-the-family final on Saturday, they'll get right back to supporting each other once the final point is played.

"We leave everything on the court," Serena said. "We're sisters the moment we shake hands."

Meanwhile, Roger Federer reached the semifinals for the 17th consecutive time at a Grand Slam event, and is two wins away from becoming the second man in history to lift the Wimbledon trophy six years in a row.

"I'll have a chance to win this tournament for the next five or 10 years, you know," the 26-year-old Swiss star said Wednesday. "I think my game's made for grass. My dream is to not only win this year, but many more years to come."

All the pre-tournament talk that Federer was more vulnerable this year evaporated as he cruised into the final four without dropping a set, taking his winning streak at Wimbledon to 39 matches and 64 overall on grass.

Federer played a nearly flawless match Wednesday to beat Mario Ancic, the last man to beat him on grass _ in the first round of Wimbledon in 2002. He served 15 aces, won 61 of 71 points on serve and never faced a break point in a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 victory.

"I really feel like I'm playing as good as the last few years," Federer said. "I've been playing very consistent, been moving great. This is obviously a perfect situation looking at the semis."

That's where Federer will face a resurgent Marat Safin, a former No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion who used to detest playing at Wimbledon and is down at No. 75 in the ATP rankings.

Federer leads Safin 8-2 in career meetings, including a straight-set victory in the third round at the All England Club last year. At the 2005 Australian Open, Safin came from two sets down to beat Federer in the semifinals and went on to win his second major title, after his 2000 U.S. Open crown.

"I never looked at Marat like No. 80 or 90 in the world," Federer said. "I mean, that's ridiculous. He knows that himself. He's finally showing again what he can do. It's just quite surprising he does it here at Wimbledon."