Serena, Venus set up all-Williams semifinal

Serena Williams (L) hugs Caroline Wozniacki after their Rogers Cup match in Montreal on Friday.
Serena Williams (L) hugs Caroline Wozniacki after their Rogers Cup match in Montreal on Friday.
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AP, Montreal :Serena and Venus set up an all-Williams semifinal in the Rogers Cup with hard-fought victories on Friday, both coming from a set down.The sisters advanced to their 25th career meeting Friday. Serena beat Caroline Wozniacki 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, and Venus topped Carla Suarez Navarro 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.The 32-year-old Serena has won the past five matches against 34-year-old Venus to take a 14-10 edge.”I definitely don’t like playing her,” Serena said. “I’ve lost to her more than anyone on the tour, so it’s definitely not a fun match.”She’s tough. She has a great serve. She runs every ball down. She has a great backhand. She hits winners off the forehand. She does everything well so it’s not an ideal matchup for anyone, to be honest.”In the other quarterfinals, Ekaterina Makarova beat Coco Vandeweghe 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 and will meet the winner of the later match between Agnieszka Radwanska and Victoria Azarenka.Serena, the defending champion and world’s top-ranked player, extended her Rogers Cup winning streak to 14 matches after victories at the 2011 and 2013 events in Toronto. She skipped the 2012 tournament.Wozniacki, coming off a win at Istanbul, had won eight straight matches.The match lasted 2 hours, 41 minutes, with Wozniacki taking control in the first set and building a 2-0 lead in the second before Serena started hitting the lines.”I was making a lot of unforced errors in general,” Serena said. “But I just thought, ‘Just keep fighting. Hopefully I can just hold on and hold on, try to break, keep going for each shot.'”The third set featured five service breaks, the last giving Serena the win on her third match point.Serena is 7-1 against Wozniacki but was prepared for a tough encounter against the in-form Dane.”Especially when you play someone like Caroline or other opponents, you know your match might be a little longer than normal,” Serena said. “You go in there thinking: ‘This is not going to be routine.’ You’re ready.”Wozniacki was happy with her tournament despite the loss.”It was really small things that did it out there today,” she said. “She came up with quite a few big serves when she needed to. It could have gone both ways. I had a break in the second set. Didn’t manage to hold on. But I gave it everything I had. It just wasn’t quite enough.”

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