Williams sisters knocked out of doubles

The 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory for the unseeded Russians has also given Zvonareva a psychological advantage should she meet Serena in Saturday's singles final.

It was the Williams' sisters first loss as a pair at Wimbledon since 2003 but an upset never looked likely early on. The twice defending champions broke the Zvonareva serve and took the set, thanks largely to a significant contribution - both in the serve and at the net - from Serena.

The second set become something of a classic. Vesnina crucially held in the lengthy fifth game with Zvonareva finishing off a marathon rally at game point with a fine volley into the tramlines. The Russians sensed their moment and put pressure on the Venus serve. And it failed - just like it had during Tuesday's miserable loss to Pironkova - as she double faulted on break point to hand their opponents a 4-2 lead which they closed out.

Serena's own serve had seen no such problems in the first two sets - and she even collected three straight aces in one game of the second - but it fell apart at the start of the third. The defending singles champion lost her serve for the first time in the match at 1-1 and the Russians never looked back. Vesnina found some consistency to go alongside some bold hitting to ideally complement Zvonareva's calm and controlled game.

They were able to see out an entertaining match in one hour and 59 minutes and earn a place in the semi-finals.

Source: wimbledon.org