CARA Black and Liezel Huber closed in on their third Wimbledon women’s doubles title when they stormed into the semi-finals of the third Grand Slam of the year in London yesterday.

The top-seeded pair of Zimbabwean tennis star Black and her American partner Huber reached the last four at the All England Club yesterday after grinding out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Spaniards Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the quarter-finals.

Llagostera Vives and Jose Martinez Sanchez were seeded 11th.
Black and Huber are going to face in their quest for a place in the final the red-hot Williams sisters — Venus and Serena — of the United States.The Williams sisters are the defending champions at Wimbledon where they are also gunning for a “double”.

Apart from reaching the women’s doubles semi-finals at Wimbledon after defeating Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld and American Vania King 6-2, 7-5 in the quarter-finals yesterday, Venus and Serena are both already through to the last four of the women’s singles.

Venus and Serena Williams’ stranglehold on Wimbledon is poised to tighten even further today as the United States takes on Russia at the All England Club.

Five-time champion Venus faces top seed Dinara Safina in what will be her eighth All England Club singles semi-final in 10 years while Serena, a two-time winner, tackles Elena Dementieva.

And after facing their Russian opponents in today’s women’s singles semi-finals, the Williams will then combine forces in the doubles where they will take on Black and Huber in the last four.

Apart from being in the running for the women’s singles title, the Williams are gunning for their fourth Wimbledon doubles title as a team this year after having won it in 2000, 2002 and 2008.

And in their quest to reach the doubles final for the fourth time in their careers at Wimbledon, the Williams sisters, who are seeded fourth in the doubles, first have to negotiate their way past co-world number ones Black and Huber in the semi-finals.

Like the Williams sisters, Black and Huber, who won the Wimbledon women’s doubles title in 2005 and 2007, are also on fire at the All England Club.

Yesterday they produced a gritty performance when beating Llagostera Vives and Jose Martinez Sanchez in their hard-fought semi-final tie.

Black and Huber deserve full marks for the way they fought their way into the semis during yesterday’s match against the Spaniards.

They lost the first set 4-6 and found themselves trailing 1-3 after the fourth game of the second and it looked all over for them. But Black and Huber fought back tenaciously in the second set in which they wiped out the 1-3 deficit after the fourth game to rattle off the next five games to take the set at 6-3. And after pushing the tie into the third and final set, Black and Huber were now on fire as they tore their opponents apart, winning all the six games.

Black and Huber pulverised Llagostera Vives and Jose Martinez Sanchez in just under 30 minutes, 28 minutes to be precise, in the third set to march into the semis.

And they are now bracing for what is undoubtedly a tough semi-final tie against the defending champions, Venus and Serena Williams.

Meanwhile, another top Zimbabwean player Kevin Ullyett is out of contention for the men’s doubles title at Wimbledon.

Ullyett and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares were vanquished in the men’s doubles quarter-finals by the top-seeded American twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, who beat them in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in 1 hour 20 minutes on Tuesday night. Ullyett and Soares were the fifth seeds and were left still searching for their first title of the year after Tuesday’s defeat by the Bryans.