Venus out as Serena through to semis, and Murray’s shoulder on mend

ALL were on a knife’s edge on Centre Court on Monday as the two Williams sisters fought it out, with Serena squarely beating her sibling in a thrilling match winning by 6-4, 6-3. Despite Serena being the favourite, Venus was ranked number 16 despite battling serious illness, and had won her three Wimbledon matches in straight sets.
This was the first major match between the two in six years and it did not disappoint. However, Serena won the first set comfortably, with three aces after Venus made several errors leading her to fall behind.
The second set continued in the same vein, although at the start a lightning serve by Venus seemed to catch her sister off guard, winning her a vital point. The crowd were on tenterhooks, willing Venus on after she fell behind 15-30 and Serena’s long lob gave Venus a crucial point at 40-30.
While the older sister continued to get in early serves throughout the match, Serena soon looked set to take charge and even though Venus saw off several chances by the younger sister to break points it was not to be. Two double-faults gave Serena three points, and finally a long shot by her sister sent her to victory, gaining her a break-point in an exciting 6-3 set.
Meanwhile Andy Murray told a press conference after his four-set victory over the giant Croatian player Ivo Karlovic that his concerns over a nagging shoulder injury were easing: “It feels better. I would have liked to have served a little bit bigger today. I’m still conscious of it, playing with quite a lot of taping on the shoulder. I played for three hours and it feels better than it did three, four days ago, which is positive.”
After the six foot 11 Karlovic, Murray meets Vasek Pospisil on Wednesday (July 8), the young Canadian who put out Murray’s last remaining British compatriot in the singles’ competition, James Ward.