Venus, Safina to meet in semis

Third seed Venus Williams stayed resolutely on course for a third successive Wimbledon title with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in their quarter-final on Tuesday.

Venus, seeking her sixth career title here, has not lost a set at Wimbledon since the 2007 third round and the 11th seeded Radwanska rarely threatened a shock on a sun-kissed Court One.

"She's such a great grasscourt player, she plays the ball so low and plays so quick. I was happy to get through," Venus said in a courtside interview.

"I can't complain, the semi-finals at Wimbledon is right where I want to be."

At the prospect of a fourth Wimbledon final against sister Serena on Saturday, she said: "That would be fantastic, something I am hoping for, of course."

Venus raced to the first set in 27 minutes and though the Pole broke early for a 2-0 lead in the second, the seven-times Grand Slam winner reeled off six straight games, clinching victory with a forehand winner after an hour and eight minutes.

She will play top seed Dinara Safina of Russia, who beat unseeded German Sabine Lisicki, for a place in Saturday's final.

Top seed Safina came from a set down to reach her first Wimbledon semi-final with an unconvincing 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory over the unseeded Lisicki.

Safina, whose tortured expressions suggest she is as much battling her own game as her opponent's, remained on course for a first career Grand Slam title despite a flurry of double faults at crucial moments on Centre Court.

The two shared a break of serve each in the opening set which Lisicki clinched 7-5 in a tiebreak when the Russian ballooned a second serve long for her seventh double fault of the set.

She restored order in the second with a single break enough to help her level the match and Safina raced through the third when a Lisicki mishit dropped wide.