Twice former champion Serena Williams took one step closer to another Wimbledon final against her sister Venus, winning through to the last four with an easy 6-4 6-0 victory over Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska. Serena, who defeated Agnieszka’s younger sister Urszula in the second round, dashed the Polish family’s Wimbledon hopes again on centre court with a perfectly-honed power game.

The sixth seed, who like Venus has concentrated her year on peaking for Wimbledon, dropped service once in the first set but constantly unsettled the 19-year-old and never let her find her rhythm.

Serena, who has yet to drop a set at Wimbledon this year, joined Venus in the semi-finals by clinching the second set with consummate ease. …click here to read more

World champion Casey Stoner will start the Dutch TT from pole position after a thrilling qualifying session in Assen. The Australian Ducati rider set a lap record of 1:35.520 to edge out Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, with Yamaha star Valentino Rossi completing the front row in third place.

Britain’s James Toseland showed impressive pace at times but had to make do with 13th place, meaning he will start from the fith row of the grid. American Nicky Hayden, a winner in the Netherlands two years ago, was fourth fastest for Honda ahead of French LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet and American Colin Edwards on a Yamaha. …click here to read more

World number one Ana Ivanovic’s luck finally ran out at Wimbledon when she was toppled 6-1 6-4 in the third round by China’s Zheng Jie. Forty-eight hours after the Serb saved two match points against Nathalie Dechy, the second with the help of a netcord, she suffered an astonishing meltdown on Court One.

The French Open champion struggled to keep the ball in play as she either sprayed errors off the court or scooped shots into the net with alarming regularity. …click here to read more

Defending champion Roger Federer raced to a comprehensive three-set win over Frenchman Marc Gicquel to continue his breezy progress. Federer completely dominated the match after surprisingly dropping his opening service game of the match, breaking Gicquel six times on the way to a 6-3 6-3 6-1 victory in just 81 minutes.

The world number one needs four more victories next week to set a modern era record of six men’s titles in a row. He captured the first set with a booming ace and the second, after two breaks of serve, with a screaming forehand winner.

With the 53rd-ranked Gicquel completely out of his depth, the Swiss master sailed through the third with two breaks to claim his 62nd grasscourt victory in a row. …click here to read more

Third seed Maria Sharapova was sensationally beaten 6-2 6-4 by fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva in the second round at Wimbledon. The 2004 champion’s game fell apart against one of the lesser lights of the powerful Russian brigade at the grasscourt grand slam and she followed men’s third seed Novak Djokovic out of the tournament early.

Sharapova’s defeat registered higher up the shock scale than Djokovic’s battering by former world number one Marat Safin 24 hours earlier because the 20-year-old Kudryavtseva is ranked 154th in the world and has never made a mark at a grand slam.

Sharapova, also a former number one, served atrociously throughout the match and many of her eight double faults came at crucial moments.

The last one gave Kudryavtseva a match point which she grabbed with both hands, pummelling a forehand into the corner before shrieking with delight at the biggest triumph of her unspectacular career. …click here to read more