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Serena cruises by Venus to reach quarterfinals at Wimbledon

Serena Williams hugs her sister Venus after winning their singles match. (AP)
Serena Williams hugs her sister Venus after winning their singles match. (AP)

While Serena Williams has had a dominant year, she has hardly been playing her best tennis. It has at times seemed that she’s had a hard time finding motivation. That changed Monday morning as the 33-year-old faced sister Venus Williams, 35, in the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Venus came in playing stronger than she has in years. She had yet to drop a set in this tournament, and she’d won the last meeting between the pair.

With both playing at their peak Monday, it was Serena advancing with the 6-4, 6-3 victory. She was focused on her game, but it was hard not to think about the moment.

“I’m 33, and she just turned 35, I don’t know how many more moments like this we’ll have,” Serena said after the match. “It was kind of surreal out there.”

This was the 26th meeting between the sisters, the 12th at a Grand Slam and the sixth at Wimbledon. The only other time they met prior to the quarterfinals of a major was at the 1998 Australian Open. At Wimbledon, they’d never met before the semifinals.

“We’ve played a lot of years and we’ve tried to be entertaining. At some point we won’t be playing forever, but clearly we’re still playing at a high level,” Venus said in her press conference. “When that moment’s over it will be over. But it’s not now.”

Serena earned a break on Venus’s first service game, as Venus committed two unforced errors to open the match. It was uncharacteristic considering her dominant play in the first week. She recovered to break Serena’s second service game to even the set at 2-2. Serena broke right back to go up 3-2, then held her service games to close out the set 6-4.

Serena’s serve made the difference in the match. It was consistent throughout, her first serves an average of 12 miles per hour faster against Venus than they were against her third-round opponent, Heather Watson. Serena recorded 10 aces, did not double fault and won 78 percent of her first-serve points.

The second set stayed on serve through six games, Serena finally earning a break in the seventh for the 4-3 advantage. Serena closed out the match from there, taking the set 6-3.

Her quest for major title No. 21, the Grand Slam and the Serena Slam (holding all four majors at once) continues Wednesday against the winner of the match between No. 23 Victoria Azarenka and No. 30 Belinda Bencic.

Serena is the third American woman to advance to the quarterfinals. She joins Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe, who each advanced earlier Monday. Vandeweghe upset No. 6 Lucie Safarova, 7-6, 7-6. This will be her first appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal. She’ll need another upset to continue moving on: Vandeweghe will face 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova. Seeded fourth this year, Sharapova advanced to the quarters for the first time in four years.

No. 21 Madison Keys defeated Olga Govortsova, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. It is the first time in 11 years that three American women have advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals.