London, July 02: Serena and Venus Williams yesterday moved to within one match of another grand slam final showdown - but they had to pull out all the stops to get there.
Both sisters, who have met in four of the last five grand slam finals with Serena victorious each time, were forced to three sets in tough quarter-finals.
World number one Serena in particular found herself in trouble against Jennifer Capriati. But despite 36 unforced errors she managed to recover from a set down to win 2-6 6-2 6-3 in 1hr 40min.
Venus was a 6-2 2-6 6-1 over 1999 champion Lindsay Davenport, who revealed she may have played her last game at the all England club.
Serena's reward for battling through was a semi-final with third seed Justine Henin-Hardenne that has all the makings of a grudge match.



Henin-Hardenne knocked the younger of the Williams sisters out of the French Open at the same stage last month, taking full advantage of the support of a wildly Partisan crowd which booed Serena off court.



Henin-Hardenne had the easiest ride of the four semi-finalists, swatting 33rd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-2 6-2.



Her compatriot Kim Clijsters, the second seed, had her concentration stung by a sting from a bee and dropped the first set to Italy's Silvia Farina Elia.



But she managed to recover to win 5-7 6-0 6-1 and set up her clash with Venus Williams.


Bureau Report