Sporting Life - Wimbledon 2008

Venus Williams battled though a hard-fought quarter-final to beat the plucky Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand in straight sets and stay on course for her fifth Wimbledon title.

While the scoreline of 6-4 6-3 suggests a rather routine passage, it was far from that as the American seventh seed was made to work for every point.

The opening set lasted 56 minutes as Tanasugarn tenaciously raced around the court to frustrate Williams and keep her within reach.

And it could have been so much different had she taken more than one of the 10 break points she carved out on the big Williams serve.

But just the one was simply not enough in the end as her towering opponent broke three times to finally take the 1-0 set lead and from then Tanasugarn had a mountain to climb.

The second was comparatively easier for Williams, who upped her game and proved just too powerful as she broke immediately before racing into a 3-1 lead thanks to two love service games.

One more break at 5-3 up sealed the victory afterwards admitted she's looking forward to the prospect of a possible final against sister Serena Williams.

She said: "I think that would be amazing if we both were in the final. I've got to take it one more step and keep playing some power tennis and keep my serve going like it is."

Williams feels the vital component to her game has been her serve, which reached speeds of 127mph against Tanasugarn.

"I think my key has been serve in this tournament," she added, after shrugging off concerns over a left hamstring strain.

"Any time I'm down break point or double break, my serve gets me out of it."

The champion also conceded to difficulty coping with the low groundstrokes of Tanasugarn, a problem she is unlikely to face against Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals.

Williams said: "A lot of the time I was battling just to stay down on the shots, and I felt good when I got one up in my strike zone."

It's eight years since her first Wimbledon title and 28-year-old Williams said: "I'm not sure what that girl in 2000 was thinking. I think she was reading a Harry Potter book.

"You know, the 27-year-old Venus also read the Harry Potter book, so not much has changed."