What they said--day 8

"I'm not sure what that girl in 2000 was thinking. I think she was reading like a Harry Potter book. You know, the 27-year-old Venus also read the Harry Potter book, so not much has changed."

Venus Williams

"...probably next life I want to be tall as her, please, or something like that."

Tamarine Tanasugarn, on Venus Williams' service game

Do you think you missed an opportunity when you pulled it back?
"Well, this match has been an opportunity, and I missed a big one."

Nadia Petrova

Why do you think there are no Chinese men strong in tennis?
"Yeah, is tough question. We want to know also."

Zheng Jie

Do you see your sister as the favorite for this tournament now?
"I would never sit here and say she's the favorite when I'm still in the draw. What are you on?"

Serena Williams

"I'm being tennis for like how many years, and now want to do something different like a normal people also."

Tamarine Tanasugarn

On TV you said when you were getting into trouble in the second set you thought about the French Open. What was that like?
"I was like, Oops, I did it again...."

Elena Dementieva

"Serena, with no doubt, is outstanding player, and so far I haven't found any weak link about her."

Zheng Jie

If you and Venus advance to the final, sharing a flat, what is that breakfast like on Saturday morning?
"I'm going to sabotage her and eat all the breakfast."

Serena Williams

Where do we go from here?
"Straight to the psychiatric unit, I think."
Commentator Samantha Smith, at the end of the Dementieva-Petrova 2nd set

"I think just in the end of the set or in the end of the match we were both disaster."

Elena Dementieva

Paths to the semifinals

Here are the players' paths to the Wimbledon semifinals:

Wild card Zheng Jie def. Dominika Cibulkova (30), Elena Baltacha (WC), Ana Ivanovic (1), Agnes Szavay (15), Nicole Vaidisova (18)

No. 6 seed Serena Williams def. Kaia Kanepi, Urzula Radwanska (WC), Amelie Mauresmo (29), Bethanie Mattek, Agnieszka Radwanska (14)

No. 5 seed Elena Dementieva def. Maria Elena Camerin, Timea Bacsinzky (Q), Gisela Dulko, Shahar Peer (24), Nadia Petrova (21)

No. 7 seed (and defending champion) Venus Williams def. Naomi Cavaday (WC), Anne Keothavong (WC), Martinez Sanchez, Alisa Kleybanova, Tamarine Tanasugarn

Williams makes quick work of Radwanksa

Serena Williams defeated Agnieszaka Radwanska in straight sets today at Wimbledon

Unlike some other people, I think Agnieszka Radwanska has talent. She supposedly "cannot hurt" powerful players like Serena Williams, but I don't buy that, just as I don't buy the theory that Anna Chakvetadze cannot compete against players who are more powerful. Radwanska really knows how to work the court. She needs a better second serve, for sure, but she has a lot of potential.

Today, however, was not her day. The Serena Williams who wins big tournaments showed up today, at one point serving four aces in one game (just like Marina Erakovic), and overwhelming Radwanska, 6-4, 6-0.

I haven't seen the entire match yet. Radwanska had a wrap on her thigh, and I don't know if her injury hampered her in any way. Radwanska is also hard to read because she has a kind of grumpy, Lindsay Davenport-like body language much of the time.

Williams will now play surprise semifinalist Zheng Jie.

Zheng makes history

Today, Zheng Jie became the first Chinese woman in history to get to the semifinals of a major tennis tournament. She defeated Nicole Vaidisova, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 in the quarterfinal I enjoyed the most today (though I did not see every moment of it). I was not surprised that Zheng won. She has used her wild card to great advantage, and taken out not only the world's number 1 player, but also the number 15 seed, Agnes Szavay. Her draw has been difficult, and she has held up well, playing her excellent grass court game very steadily, and hanging in during bad patches.

Vaidisova, for her part, is not the most mentally tough player around. She has talent, but she can fold under pressure. It was a bit surprising, in fact, to see her not fold during her round of 16 third set against Anna Chakvetadze; however, one then remembers that Chakvetadze is even more mentally fragile than Vaidisova.

Zheng's next opponent is Serena Williams. If Zheng does not succomb to nerves the way Tamarine Tanasugarn did today, that could be an entertaining semifinal match.

Tanasugarn finally has a case of nerves

Tamarine Tanasugarn has plowed her way through this year's Wimbledon, with her beautiful grass court skills and her winning attitude. Today was different, though. Tanasugarn was visibly nervous at the beginning of her quarterfinal match against defending champion Venus Williams--she double-faulted several times and had all kinds of trouble with her serve. She eventually settled down and corrected that problem, however, and once again delivered her slice serve, making it difficult for her tall opponent to return it easily.

But Tanasugarn had another mental issue: She could not break Venus Williams. She repeatedly set up break point situations, then was unable to make the conversion, usually because she made unforced errors. Only once in ten times did Tanasugarn break the Williams serve. Her inability to break Williams gave Williams more an more confidence, and the match ended with a Williams victory, 6-4, 6-3.

This could have been a great match. Williams had an easy draw until she got to the quarterfinals, and if Tanasugarn had settled her nerves, we would have seen three sets. I was hoping for a nice, long match with some momentum changes, but what I got was Tanasugarn wilting under the occasion.

Quarterfinalists give new meaning to the term "winning ugly"

I expected the Elena Dementieva-Nadia Petrova Wimbledon quarterfinal match to have some drama, but perhaps not as much as it had. But it wasn't good drama--more like a competition to see who was the bigger head case. It started off well enough, but then a kind of strange foot fault (serving with a foot in the wrong quadrant) was called on Petrova, and things went downhill. Petrova was baffled by the call, tried to contest it, and then could not get it out of her mind, which made it easy for Dementieva to take the first set.

Petrova continued to decline until about the middle of the second set, when she saw her opponent getting tight (at 5-1, with two match points). Once she saw her advantage--to her credit--she switched back on, played some good tennis and won the set in a tiebreak. I expected Dementieva to pull the same stunt she did at the French Open, and melt away in the third set, but instead, she came back a different player, just in time to watch Petrova's forehand fail her again and again. Dementieva emerged the victor, 6-1, 6-7, 6-3.

Petrova remarked later that the heat got to her, but no ballkids appeared with umbrellas, even after she informed the umpire that the umbrellas were missing. I know that regular umbrellas--not heat umbrellas--are the order of the day at Wimbledon, but there was no excuse for not providing the players some protection from the sun.

Oudin out of Wimbledon in 2nd round

The number 1 girls' seed, Melanie Oudin, was defeated at Wimbledon today by an unseeded player from Great Britain, Laura Robson. Robson defeated Oudin 6-1, 6-3.

Oudin has not had a big win lately. She did not enter the Australian Open, and she made it to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. She was considered almost a shoo-in to win last year's Orange Bowl, but she was defeated in the final by Michelle Larcher de Brito, who has since moved away from most junior events. Oudin is only 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and some of her problems could be caused by her height now that the game has (unfortunately) changed so much.

Second seed Arantxa Rus, who won the Australian Open girls' event, has advanced to the third round, with a win over Yang Zi-Jun.