| South Florida Sun-Sentinel Jun. 30--WIMBLEDON, England -- Serena Williams couldn't have been in better humor Monday. Nothing, not even an assignment to the over-dramatized graveyard Court 2, was going to ruin this day. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS She needed only one hour and nine minutes to dispose of Boca Raton's Bethanie Mattek 6-3, 6-3, then laughed her way through a 10-minute meeting with reporters. "You don't have to nod your head that vigorously", she said, cracking up at a newsman as she acknowledged that her sister, Venus, hits harder serves. About two hours earlier, Venus Williams had been nearly as efficient as she banished Alisa Kleybanova 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 23 minutes. And so the sisters are through to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, still on target to play their first Grand Slam final since the 2003 Wimbledon. As great as they are, it has been a long time since they buzzed through a major draw like this and, in fact, you'd have to go back to that '03 Wimbledon to find the last time they were even in the semifinals of a Slam together. Nevertheless, Serena Williams said, there will be no knowing winks over dinner or in the Wimbledon vans on the way back to their rented home about their collision course to the Saturday championship. "Not until we're there", she said. "We're just trying to stay focused. We both have some tough opponents coming into the quarterfinals." For Serena Williams, the tough opponent this afternoon is No. 14 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, the 19-year-old future star from Poland who upset No. 4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. For Venus Williams, it's 31-year-old Tamarine Tanasugarn, who defeated injured No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 6-2 to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in 45 tries. Also into the quarters: No. 5 Elena Dementieva, who defeated Shahar Peer 6-2, 6-1; No. 18 Nicole Vaidisova, a 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-3 upset victor over No. 8 Anna Chakvetadze; No. 21 Nadia Petrova with a 6-1, 6-4 win over upstart fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva; and unseeded Zheng Jie, who added No. 15 Agnes Szavay to her list of upset victims. She had taken down No. 1 ranked French Open winner Ana Ivanovic on Friday. For the first time in the history of the women's tournament at Wimbledon, none of the top four seeds are into the quarterfinals. Three players -- Jankovic, Maria Sharapova and Kuznetsova -- had a chance to seize No. 1 from Ivanovic. With all of them losing before the semis, Ivanovic will remain No. 1 when the new rankings come out Monday. It was a little surprising that tournament referee Andrew Jarrett sent the Williams sisters to Court 2, which doesn't have nearly the seating capacity of Centre Court or Court 1. "Granted, I do think it's weird, especially having a female champ who has won this tournament four times 1/8Venus Williams3/8", said Serena. "I've only won twice, but, hey, that's not so bad." A spokesman for Jarrett pointed out there were 16 matches for five show courts, and he had to make a choice about which three would go on Centre. He settled on Roger Federer vs. Lleyton Hewitt, Kuznetsova vs. Radwanska and Andrew Murray, the British No. 1, vs. Richard Gasquet. Charles Bricker can be reached at cbricker@sun-sentinel.com; his blog can be read at blogs.Sun-Sentinel.com
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