TENNIS WTA MONTREAL – The two Williams sisters will play each other in the Rogers Cup semifinal in Montreal today. In the other semifinal Agnieszka Radwanska will face Ekaterina Makarova. Paul Sassoon
Serena Williams and her sister Venus will meet in the Rogers Cup semifinal, it will be the 25th time that the sister have played each other on the main tour, but only the second in the last five years. Their last meeting was last year at Charleston. So far Serena has won 14 times and Venus 10, but the younger sister has won the last five meetings. The other semifinal will see Agnieszka Radwanska play Ekaterina Makarova.
Serena Williams came through a tough battle against Caroline Wozniacki. The world number one didn’t play well and the Dane came close to beating the American for the second time in her career (first time was Miami 2012). Wozniacki won the first set 6-4 and looked like she could compete with this Serena, but at the end of the second and third sets she lost her serve sealing her fate. “It was really small things that did it out there today. You know, she came up with quite a few big serves when she needed to. I don’t know how many aces she had, but definitely quite a few.” said the Dane after the match. “It could have gone both ways. I had a break in the second set. Didn’t manage to hold on. Yeah, she won in the end. But, you know, again, I gave it everything I had. It just wasn’t quite enough today.”
“I’m definitely fit. I feel like I’m really ready to go the long haul.” said Serena. “I think I was making a lot of unforced errors in general. But for me, I just thought, Just keep fighting. Hopefully I can just hold on and hold on, try to break, keep going for each shot. I just never wanted to stop and try to do the best that I could.”
She was then asked about the match against her sister, “It will be great. She’s been playing really well. She’s in really good form.” But then asked again she admitted it is not her favourite match-up, “I definitely don’t like playing her. I think I’ve lost to her more than anyone on the tour, so… Definitely not a fun match. But she’s tough. She has a great serve. She runs every ball down. She has a great backhand. She hits winners off the forehand. She does everything well, so it’s not an ideal matchup for anyone, to be honest.”
Venus came through a tough quarter final as well. She beat Carla Suarez Navarro 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in over 2 hours of play. After her match she was also asked about the match against her sister and if she remembered their first meeting in 1999, “I totally remember. We had a tough match back then. That’s the trend that started and it hasn’t changed. I suspect tomorrow will be another tough match.”
A Williams will definitely be in the final and she will face the winner of the second semifinal between Ekaterina Makarova and Agnieszka Radwanska. Makarova ended Coco Vandeweghe’s run in Montreal that started in the qualifying rounds and saw her progress to the quarterfinals eliminating Zhang, Ivanovic and Jankovic. Makarova won 6-1, 4-6, 6-1. Agnieszka Radwanska instead won easily against Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-2.
