Not content to let their singles results alone do the talking, three of this year’s semi-finalists are extending their winning runs to the doubles arena with the Williams sisters and Elena Vesnina on a roll.
Each posted straight-sets wins in the ladies’ singles quarter-finals on Tuesday before returning to fulfil their doubles duties triumphantly later in the afternoon.
Aiming for their first Grand Slam doubles title together since Wimbledon four years ago, the Williams sisters combined to upstage Czech No.6 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.
In a rematch of the 2012 Wimbledon and London Olympic Games finals, the Williams sisters extended their head-to-head record against the Czechs to 3-0, breaking for 5-3 in the afternoon sun, allowing Serena to serve it out when Venus thumped a winning backhand volley, 6-4, 6-3.
With 13 Grand Slam doubles crowns to their names, the Americans are selective in which majors they contest together these days but in an Olympic year they have ramped up their commitments, playing Grand Slams together for the first time since 2014.
They arrived at Wimbledon with a mediocre 2-2 record for the season having only played two clay court events, including a third-round exit at the French Open.
But on the grass at their most successful slam, they were in total control on No.3 Court, progressing to the quarter-finals in 89 minutes.
Also joining them in the last eight were their No.10 seeds countrywomen Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears, 6-3, 6-3 winners over Australian-Russian duo, Daria Gavrilova and Daria Kasatkina.
The Americans reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year ending Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova’s run in the quarter-finals when the American-Czech pair was aiming to win its third straight Grand Slam title. They fell to eventual champions Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza but there was a silver lining in defeat: A week later Raquel (nee Kops-Jones) married her husband Toby Atawo.
Against the young Darias, Atawo served out the first set 6-3, punching away the winning volley on set point and broke in the opening game of the second set. From there, they put the pedal down breaking for a third time to seal the match 6-3. They never faced a break point.
Gavrilova, 22, playing just her second Wimbledon, had never won a Grand Slam doubles match before this year’s Championships, while Kasatkina was making her Wimbledon debut. The pair stunned No.7 seeds Mattek-Sands and Safarova in the first round.
After reaching her maiden Grand Slam singles semi-final earlier in the day, Vesnina returned to court for the completion of her second-round doubles encounter, teaming with her bridesmaid and countrywoman Ekaterina Makarova to defeat German Annika Beck and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Only a day before, Vesnina had edged out her good friend in a marathon fourth-round singles clash.