London: The four semi-finalists at 2016 Wimbledon were confirmed on Tuesday with the chances of Williams sisters playing the final brighten up with both Venus and Serena making the last fours. They are joined by Angelique Kerber and Elena Vesnina.


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Five-time champion and nostalgic favourite Venus Williams on Tuesday reached her first Wimbledon semi-final in seven years, setting up a clash with Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.

Venus, 36, is the oldest women`s semi-finalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994 as she also moved a step closer to a final showdown with her sister and defending champion Serena Williams.


The American veteran, seeded eight, enjoyed a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 victory over Kazakhstan`s world number 96 Yaroslava Shvedova.

German fourth seed Kerber, meanwhile, reached her second Wimbledon semi-final with a 7-5, 7-6 (7/2) win over Simona Halep, the fifth seed from Romania.

Later, Six-time champion Serena reached her 10th Wimbledon semi-final with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Russia 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She meets Elena Vesnina.


The unseeded Russian defeated Slovak 19th seed Dominika Cibulkova, who is due to get married on Saturday, in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.


Venus, who won the last of her seven Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2008, is back in the last-four of a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2010 US Open.

Eight-time Wimbledon finalist Venus trails 3-2 in her five career meetings with 28-year-old Kerber, who won their only meeting on grass in the 2012 Olympics at Wimbledon.

Kerber, meanwhile, is now in sight of becoming the new world number one -- although she needs to win the title while seeing Serena fail to make the semi-finals.

Kerber now has 33 match wins in 2016, joint-best with Cibulkova.

The 28-year-old Kerber, who also made the semi-finals in 2012, came out on top in a big-hitting battle with Halep, who was a semi-finalist in 2014.

The first set alone saw nine breaks of serve in 12 games with Kerber squandering leads of 3-1 and 5-3 before her Romanian opponent double-faulted on set point.

Kerber was 4-2 and 5-3 in front in the second before the tenacious Halep fought back to reach the tiebreak in a set which featured four more breaks.

But Kerber dominated the tiebreak, going to match point when Halep was bamboozled by a net cord and then taking victory off a backhand error.


(With Agency inputs)