WIMBLEDON – The sounds were new to Serena Williams, and the feeling on Centre Court was different. The result, though, was quite familiar. Playing under the retractable roof for the first time on the court where she's had some of her biggest triumphs, Williams defeated defending champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 7-5 to reach her eighth Wimbledon semifinal on Tuesday. “I loved it. I loved the sound,” Williams said. “The sound of the balls. It's kind of like a whoosh and a pop. It's really cool. It's almost like a video game, but you're playing. It kind of flies through and you hear it when it lands. ... I really like playing indoor.” Her game seems well-suited for it. While rain disrupted play elsewhere at the All England Club, Williams used another commanding serving performance to overpower the fourth-seeded Czech. Williams hit 13 aces — including three in the last game — to end Kvitova's 11-match winning streak at Wimbledon. Her last loss here also came against Williams, in the 2010 semifinals. “You can't play a defending Wimbledon champion or Grand Slam champion and not elevate your game,” Williams said. “I had to weed out the riffraff and just get serious.” “I think that's why she's the great champion, because she knows what she needs to play in the important points,” Kvitova said. “It's really tough to beat her.” Williams, who hit a Wimbledon-record 23 aces in a fourth-round win over Zheng Jie of China, is trying to become the first woman 30 or over to win a Grand Slam title since Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon in 1990. The 30-year-old Williams will face either second-ranked Victoria Azarenka or Tamira Paszek of Austria. Angelique Kerber advanced to her first Wimbledon semifinal by beating fellow German Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 6-7 (7), 7-5 in a see-saw match also under the roof. Lisicki, who knocked out Maria Sharapova, saved three match points in the second set and served for the match at 5-3 in the third. But Kerber bounced back to win the last four games, finally converting her fifth match point when Lisicki sent a backhand wide. Outside Centre Court, it was a start-and-stop day at Wimbledon, as the persistent rain continued to cause headaches for organizers. Play was delayed for about 30 minutes on the outside courts in the morning, and two more rain delays interrupted play for a total of about three hours after that. Andy Murray and Florian Mayer still found enough time between the showers to wrap up suspended matches and reach the quarterfinals. In another fourth-round match that was suspended Monday, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame an ailing back and a one-set deficit to beat American Mardy Fish 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4. David Ferrer also advanced in the first match on Centre Court, where organizers again came under scrutiny for their use of the retractable roof. Their decision to open and then close it caused the start of Ferrer's match against Juan Martin del Potro to be delayed by about 40 minutes. Ferrer needed less than two hours to beat del Potro 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Murray made the last eight for the fifth straight year by beating the 16th-seeded Marin Cilic 7-5, 6-2, 6-3, while Mayer ousted Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2. American qualifier Brian Baker's remarkable run ended with a 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3 loss to 27th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. Double blow for India India's plans for Olympic tennis glory suffered a blow Tuesday as key doubles partnership Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna were knocked out of Wimbledon, along with top doubles player Leander Paes. Bhupathi and Bopanna, the seventh seeds, were beaten 7-5, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in the second round by Russia's Mikhail Elgin and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, the fourth seeds, were defeated 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (7/2), 8-6 by 15th seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Brazil's Marcelo Melo in the third round. Bhupathi and Bopanna will represent India at the Olympics tennis tournament later this month, to be held at the All England Club. Paes will also be back at Wimbledon, though he has been paired with the much lower-ranked Vishnu Vardhan, following a well-documented spat at the All India Tennis Association. Elsewhere in the men's doubles third round, Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his Dutch partner Jean-Julien Rojer, the eighth seeds, were knocked out in five sets by wildcards Jonathan Marray of Britain and Frederik Nielsen of Denmark. The wildcard pairing won 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (7/4), 5-7, 7-5 in a knife-edge match on Court 14. — Agencies
