Serena holds firm as Clijsters, Venus fall

Defending champion Serena Williams moved into the semifinals at Wimbledon with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Chinese ninth seed Li Na on Tuesday.

Williams claimed a last four place at the All England Club for the seventh time in her career.

Li was completely outplayed by the American top seed as her game unravelled on Centre Court and she never looked likely to emulate her achievement of reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open.

Yet the Chinese number one, who rallied briefly in the second set, can look back with satisfaction after equalling her best performance here when she reached the quarterfinals in 2006.

Serena remains on course for her fourth Wimbledon singles title, while Li's exit means that Asian hopes of singles glory rest with Lu Yen-Hsun - who is due to play Novak Djokovic in the men's quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic battled into the semi-finals with a gritty 4-6, 7-6 (10/8), 8-6 victory over Estonia's Kaia Kanepi.

Kvitova will face Serena Williams in the semifinals.

ZVONAREVA DOWNS CLIJSTERS

Russia's Vera Zvonareva admits her new-found maturity helped to secure a semifinal place for the first time here at Wimbledon.

Zvonareva won through to the last four - for only the second time in a Grand Slam - thanks to a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over eighth seed Kim Clijsters.

The 21st seed came back from a set down to beat Clijsters for the first time in six attempts.

Zvonareva triumphed because she managed to keep her poise even when the match was going against her in the first set by draping a towel over her head at every break.

The 25-year-old told reporters: "I was playing one point at a time - I was not going to look around. I was trying to stay concentrated all the time.

"Nothing else was bothering me - I wasn't noticing anything.

That helped me a lot because I was able to play pretty good tennis from the beginning to the end.

"You are more mature. You know you have been in different situations and you know how to manage them better.

"You know that it is important just to forget what was before and concentrate on the next point.

"I put the towel on because it helps me relax and not to see what is going on around me.

"It is very important for me that my head is relaxed because then I will know what to do on the next point.

"If you see things around you and start noticing other scores it takes your concentration away a bit."

Clijsters had broken Zvonareva in the eighth game of the match to take the first set, but she struggled to find any rhythm after that.

"I just didn't produce on the important points of the match," Clijsters said. "She served very well at the important points but I never really made her work for it all that much. That is the most disappointing thing for me.

"She was good at keeping me under pressure - she hits the ball very hard and deep and she was really on top of my game."

PIRONKOVA STUNS VENUS

Five-time champion Venus Williams suffered a shock 6-2, 6-3 defeat against unseeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.

Not since Jelena Jankovic defeated Williams in the third round in 2006 had Venus failed to reach the women's singles final here, but the American second seed was completely out-played by Pironkova, the world number 82, in the most remarkable result of this year's Championships.

Venus had competed in eight of the last 10 Wimbledon finals and had been odds-on to make yet another appearance in the showpiece after moving through the first four rounds without dropping a set.

Yet there had been signs against Jarmila Groth in the fourth round that Venus was not at the top of her game as the Australian pushed her to a tie-break in their fourth round tie.

But even so Venus has been the queen of Wimbledon for so long that this ranks as a truly stunning upset.

"She's played well to get this far, but I don't think I did anything right. If there was a shot to miss, I missed it," Venus said.

"I just let it spiral and didn't get any balls in. I had a lot of opportunities but I just seemed to hit each one out.

"To not be able to bring my best tennis and to make that many errors is disappointing in a match where I wasn't hit off the court or anything.

"Obviously losses like this aren't fun but I'll be back at the US Open."

Pironkova, the daughter of a former canoe champion, is the lowest ranked woman left in the draw and has never won a title on the main WTA tour. She can look forward to a semifinal showdown with Russia's Vera Zvonareva.

"Honestly, I think no one expected me to play in a quarterfinal at Wimbledon and beat Venus Williams like that," Pironkova said.

"Winning 6-2, 6-3 was the biggest surprise for me. I expected a longer match.

"I didn't play on grass until five years ago but Wimbledon has always been like a religion to me.

"I still cannot believe I reached the semifinals. This is truly like a dream to me and I will try to enjoy it as much as I can."

Although Pironkova is ranked 80 places below Venus, the Bulgarian had no reason to believe she couldn't shock the world number two because she had already upset her in the first round of the Australian Open four years ago.

That stunning victory in Melbourne in their last meeting was by far the best result of Pironkova's career.

The 22-year-old from Plovdiv, who defeated former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli in the last round, had never even been past the second round of a Grand Slam in 18 previous attempts until her run here this year.

Also with Reuters