"You never know what could happen," said eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who lost to Serena 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals, "but I'm pretty sure they're playing very good tennis, and they deserve to play in the final."

It's the first time the top four-seeded women all reached the semifinals at a major tournament since it happened at Wimbledon in 2006. Yet the matchups could hardly appear more lopsided.

Venus leads Safina 2-1 in previous meetings, while Serena leads Dementieva 5-3. Of more significance might be these statistics: Venus is 12-4 in Grand Slam semifinals and has seven titles, and Safina is 3-1 with zero titles; Serena is 13-2 in Grand Slam semifinals with 10 titles, and Dementieva is 2-5 with zero titles.

Venus is bidding to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win Wimbledon three years in a row and is trying for No. 6 overall. Serena beat Venus in the 2002 and 2003 finals at the All England Club.

"We have a great game. We have strong serves. I think we have pretty good returns," Serena said. "We both move pretty well. So I think that's a pretty solid game."

Should a championship match come about, they would turn into rivals. Until then, though, they are teammates.

They're sharing a house during the tournament. They practice together - an advantage no one else on tour has. And they're playing doubles as a pair, defending their Wimbledon title and reaching the semifinals by defeating Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Vania King of the United States 6-2, 7-5 Wednesday.

... contd.