Wimbledon: Williams sisters doing it for themselves in the doubles

YESTERDAY was supposed to be a rest day for the women ahead of today’s semi-final matches, but Serena Williams spent much of it on court in doubles action with her sister, Venus.

A day after reaching the last four of the singles, Serena paired up with Venus to claim a 3-6, 6-3, 9-7 win over fellow singles quarter-finalist Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in the second round of the women’s doubles.

That match should have been played earlier in the week but rain delays and Serena and Kirilenko’s involvement in the singles event put paid to that.

As a result, the Williams sisters had to come back on court last night for their third-round match against No 13 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sania Mirza. Again the American pair – who are seeking a fourth Wimbledon doubles title – ran out winners, 6-4, 6-3.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s Colin Fleming and Su-Weh Hsieh enjoyed a fine victory in the second round of the mixed doubles, beating seventh seeds Aisam-ul-haq Kureishi and Andrea Hlavackova in three sets on Court 18. After the 27-year-old from Linlithgow and his Taiwanese partner took the first set 6-3, the momentum of the match seemed to have turned against them when they lost the second set on the tiebreak. But they proved the stronger pair in the decider, winning 6-1 to progress to the last 16.

And there is sure to be at least one British or part-British team in the last eight, as Commonwealth Games gold medallist Fleming and Hsieh now meet Laura Robson and Dominic Inglot. The winners of that match face a tough quarter-final against third seeds Nenad Zimonjic and Katarina Srebotnik, who ended the hopes of two more Britons, Ken Skupski and Melanie South.

Serb Zimonjic and his Slovenian partner beat the English pair 6-4, 6-7, 9-7.

Elsewhere, Jonathan Marray became the first British player to reach the semi-finals of the Wimbledon men’s doubles since Mark Cox in 1977 after he and partner Freddie Nielsen beat James Cerretani and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. The pair won 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/4) 6-7 (7/3) 2-6 6-2.