SERENA and Venus Williams closed in on another Wimbledon final clash, but Dominika Cibulkova is free to concentrate on her wedding after defeat by Elena Vesnina.
The Slovakian was so sure she would not go all the way at the All England Club that she booked her nuptials with Miso Navara in Bratislava on finals day. When she defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in the fourth round on Monday, she admitted one more win would mean the wedding would have to be postponed.
But the physical and emotional toll of Monday's epic encounter told and she was comfortably beaten 6-2, 6-2 by Vesnina. Cibulkova, who won the warm-up tournament in Eastbourne, said: "I think I will need a few hours to just think about everything.
"I think tomorrow I will realise that I had a great grass-court season. I will just look forward to the wedding, because everything is ready. If I would be still here, I would just think about tennis. What I do, I do 100 per cent. I will get married 100 per cent, not thinking about tennis."
Russian Vesnina was playing in her first grand slam singles quarter-final at the age of 29 and joins a growing list of surprise semi-finalists in the women's game over the past 18 months: "I am very surprised," she said.
"It was like a dream came true. I'm always thinking, 'I can do well in the grand slams'. I had some good wins. I was close to being in the quarter-finals a couple of times, but it was not good enough. I was just waiting and waiting for this happen."
Vesnina, meanwhile, was ready to give some of the credit to Ivan Lendl. When Andy Murray reunited with Lendl last month, a hashtag '£thelendleffect' began. Bruno Soares wrote on Twitter that he felt the benefit because he is the doubles partner of Andy's brother Jamie, to which Vesnina, Soares' mixed doubles partner, replied that she should too.
"He said, 'You will see, you will get it'," said Vesnina. "I am in the semi-finals of Wimbledon. There is something in it."
Vesnina next plays defending champion Serena Williams, who defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-4 and is looking in ominously good form. The 34-year-old insisted she would not think about a potential final against her sister - their first since 2009.
"I'm just trying to win my match, I had a tough opponent today and have a tough semi-final," Serena said.
"It would be great [to play Venus]. She's such a tough opponent. I want her to win, obviously not if I'm there, but I desperately want her to win."
Venus, 36, reached the last four at a slam for the first time since 2010 with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 victory over Yaroslava Shvedova: "The wins and the losses, they all lead to these big moments. You can't always have these big moments. If you're Serena Williams, I guess that happens a lot, but as Venus Williams this is an awesome day," she said.
It is also the last time the American has been in the semi-finals since she was diagnosed with the auto-immune disease Sjogren's syndrome in 2011: "The road was six years," said Venus.
"They go by fast thankfully. But I've been really blessed, to have an opportunity to be here, have had an opportunity in the past to do this. I don't have any regrets about anything that's taken place in between. It's been a journey, but it's made me stronger."
In the last four Venus will play German fourth seed Angelique Kerber, who is the only player not to drop a set and won a tight tussle with Simona Halep 7-5, 7-6 (7/2). The match featured 13 breaks of serve but Kerber was the more aggressive and deserved the victory.
The 28-year-old stunned Serena in the final of the Australian Open in January but then struggled to deal with the extra pressure and lost in the opening round of the French Open: "When I arrived in Paris, I was feeling much more pressure. I did it actually by myself, put a lot of pressure on me. Also, I was not handling it so well to do everything off court. It was too much, I think," she said.
"When I arrived here, I was telling myself, just like in Australia, just be relaxed, playing round by round, not making things too complicated, not putting pressure on myself."
