Bryan Brothers and Williams Sisters Charge into Wimbledon Doubles Semis

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Bryan Brothers and Williams Sisters Charge into Wimbledon Doubles Semis

By Erik Gudris

Photo Credit: Getty Images

(July 5th, 2012) Despite all the rain delays the past two weeks at the All-England Club, the men's and women's doubles events are finally at the semifinal stage with several top-level matches that could well be a clue to who might take home medals at the upcoming Summer Games in a few weeks time.

On the men's side, with the early upsets of top seeds Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi and Melbourne winners Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, it opened the doors for defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan to possibly win their third Wimbledon title. But the Bryans have had to fight in their last two matches including today where they needed five sets to defeat the All-American pair of Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram 5-7, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. The Bryans will now meet in the semis a surprise team in unseeded Jonathan Marray of Great Britain and Frederik Nielsen of Denmark.

The other men's doubles semi features former champions Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner against two-time finalists Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau.

For the women, one team despite being unseeded and having never played together in two years are suddenly looking like the favorites for the title. Serena and Venus Williams have had to play back-to-back matches to make up for the rain delays this week, but they have found their winning groove once again as they go for their fifth Wimbledon doubles title.

With a commanding 6-1, 6-1 win today in the quarterfinals over Americans Racqel Kopp-Jones and Abigail Spears, the Williams sisters now take on the No. 1 seeds in Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in a semi that could be well be the Gold Medal match in a few weeks time when both teams represent the United States in Olympic Tennis.

The other semifinal will feature an all-Italian team in Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone taking on No. 6 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka who upset French Open champions Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the last round.