Venus Williams of the U.S. reaches for the ball during her quarter-final match against Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London July 1, 2008

The Williams sisters are in opposite halves of the draw and could meet in Saturday's final. The two have twice before been in the final, with Serena winning both in 2002 and '03. "That would be amazing if we both were in the final," the seventh-seeded Venus said. "I have to take it one more step and keep playing power tennis."

Serena Williams of the U.S. celebrates winning a point during her match against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London July 1, 2008

Venus will next face No. 5 Elena Dementieva, who wasted a 5-1 lead and two match points in the second set before beating fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-3 to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal. Dementieva was a set and 5-1 up after a one-sided encounter that Petrova barely seemed to be taking part in other than to produce a steady stream of forehand errors. With the finishing post within touching distance and serving for the match, Dementieva threw the 21st seed an undeserved lifeline by double-faulting to hand Petrova her first break.

Another break by Petrova followed and what should have been an easy win suddenly turned into a more intriguing encounter.

Dementieva, the highest remaining women's seed in the draw, held two match points in the second-set tiebreak but could not convert them, enabling Petrova to force a decider.

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