Serena, Venus to clash in Montreal semi-finals
New York: World number one Serena outlasted Caroline Wozniacki to clinch a 4-6 7-5 7-5 victory while Venus also came from a set down to beat Spanish 14th seed Carla Suarez Navarro, the third round conqueror of Maria Sharapova, 4-6 6-2 6-3.
Serena will take a 14-10 career lead over her older sister into the semifinal.
“You go in there thinking, this is not going to be routine. You have to be ready,” she added.
Wozniacki, a former world number one who is seeded 11th, claimed her only victory over the US star in the quarter-finals at Miami in 2012.
Wozniacki had been riding an eight-match winning streak, including a title in Istanbul in July.
“It was really the small things that I did out there today,” added Williams.
“She came up with quite a few big serves when she needed to. It could have gone both ways,” she added.
Williams claimed her fourth title of the year at Stanford on Sunday, but she has disappointed in the majors this year, failing to add to her cache of 17 Grand Slam titles.
She’ll get a last chance of 2014 to do so at the US Open, which starts in Flushing Meadows on August 25.
As she has in many of her recent matches, Williams got off to a slow start against Wozniacki and the Dane was soon up 6-4 4-2.
With the aid of an improved serve — which yielded a total of 15 aces in the match, Williams began to assert herself.
“I am definitely fit,” Williams said.
“I feel like I am ready to go the long haul. I needed to feel that and get some three-set wins under my belt,” she added.
Wozniacki twice recovered a break in the third set before Williams finally closed out the match.
