Venus and Serena Williams kept up their semi-final date with commanding victories over Vera Zvonareva and Anastasia Rodionova respectively at the WTA Tier II Bangalore Open on Friday.
After a sluggish start to the tournament, the American sisters displayed the famous Williams dominance as Venus disposed off seventh seeded Russian Zvonareva 6-4, 6-3 and Serena followed it up with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Rodionova.
The Williams sisters, who have played each other 14 times, will meet for the first time since the 2005 US Open final. They have won seven matches each, excluding a walkover for Serena.
"It would've been better if we met in the final, but I hope whoever wins tomorrow goes on to win the title," said Venus.
Fourth seed Patty Schnyder also made the semis, but not before surviving a scare from the Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova.
The surprise package of the tournament -- the 6'3" tall Amanmuradova -- who showed great focus to win the first two rounds after being a set down -- fell apart against the dogged Swiss. Amanmuradova let slip the advantage in the decider to crash to a 6-4, 4-6, 6-7 (1) defeat.
Venus, who struggled with her serve as she sent down 15 double-faults against Shuai Peng on Thursday, was off to a quick start against Zvonareva, taking a 5-1 lead. Though she failed to serve out the set on two occasions, she broke Zvonareva in the tenth game to seal it.
Zvonareva, who has lost to the American thrice in four meetings, failed to come up with a solution to Venus' overpowering game this time as well. The American moved her side to side with little effort and used her backhand to dictate the rallies.
A flurry of early breaks in the third set as well gave Venus the advantage, and she served out the match at 6-3.
Serena, returning to the tour in Bangalore after a gum surgery that put her out for more than four weeks, had little trouble putting out Rodionova, part of the Russian blond brigade. More comfortable with the surface and the conditions in Bangalore, she dished out a strong, if not flamboyant, performance, against Rodionova.
"I was feeling the ball much better today," said Serena in a post-match conference that was more entertaining than her match.
"I didn't make early as many errors as the other night."
On her semi-final contest against Venus, the younger Williams said, "She is always a tough opponent. I was hoping she would wring her leg or something... but, no, seriousy, it's always nice to play her. It's going to be a fun match."
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