Elena Dementieva of Russia is through to the semi-final match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London after a tough battle with compatriot Nadia Petrova. To steal the show, Elena is to see off defending champion Venus Williams, who is en route to the fifth Wimbledon title. Russia’s Marat Safin progressed to the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second time in his career. He plays Spaniard Feliciano Lopez today.| Ads |
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But for the 2006 Wimbledon, Dementieva had always stumbled in the fourth round of the tournament and, once it emerged that she played Nadia Petrova this year, there were no particular hopes that this Wimbledon would be an exception – Dementieva had yielded to Petrova eight of 14 matches since 1997.
Yesterday, however, Dementieva ran down the opponent from the very beginning. She led by a set and had the advantage of 5-1, when she was overwhelmed by the nerves to lose the second set 6-7. But the beautiful Russian recovered in the third one to finally prevail over the compatriot.
Elena faces defending champion Venus Williams in the semi-finals, who easily beat Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn on Court One. The all-Williams final appears the most probable scenario. Serena Williams saw off Agnieszka Radwanska to play Chinese wildcard Jie Zheng in the other semi-final.
In the men’s section, Marat Safin will endeavor today to stay for another couple of days at Wimbledon. The charismatic but too temperamental Russian progressed to the quarter-finals not by making some super efforts but rather by playing up to his talent. His next opponent is Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who had beaten Safin on four of their five matches.
