Venus, Serena edge closer to semis duel

MELBOURNE, Australia – Serena and Venus Williams are on track for a sisters semifinal at the Australian Open after fourth-round wins.

Venus advanced to the quarterfinals for the seventh time by beating Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, in the opening match Monday on Rod Laver Arena.

She’s a win away from a possible showdown with her younger sibling. Defending champion Serena Williams had a 6-4, 6-2 win over Australia’s Sam Stosur.

Serena, who has won the Australian each odd-numbered year since defeating Venus in the 2003 final, conceded only seven points on serve in the match, including one double-fault in the second set.

“I can’t believe it – Sam beat me last time pretty convincingly, so I knew I had to do real good,” Williams said. “I think my serve was pretty good today.”

Stosur, seeded 13th, beat Williams in their last match and had match points before losing the match prior to that. On Monday, she didn’t get close, and was the last Australian eliminated from the women’s draw.

There’s two Chinese women into the quarterfinals, for the first time ever at a Grand Slam tournament.

Li upset No. 4-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4, 6-3, in a 98-minute match featuring 12 service breaks to join Zheng Jie, the 2008 Wimbledon semifinalist, in the last eight. Zheng is on the other half of the draw.

“Nothing better,” Li said, smiling, “Yeah, I mean good for us.”

In men’s fourth-round matches, 2008 champion Novak Djokovic beat Poland’s Lukasz Kubot, 6-1, 6-2, 7-5, and No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko held off 2009 semifinalist Fernando Verdasco, 6-2, 7-5, 4-6, 6-7 (5), 6-3, to extend his winning streak to 13.

Davydenko was only two points from finishing off Verdasco in four sets but the Spaniard rallied to win the last four points of the tiebreaker and force a fifth. (AP)