TOP seed Serena Williams kept alive her hopes of a sixth Wimbledon title and a possible calendar Grand Slam with a three-set win over Victoria Azarenka.

The American, 33, won a high-quality quarter-final 3-6 6-2 6-3 in front of 15,000 spectators on Centre Court.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion has now won 26 matches in a row at the majors stretching back to Wimbledon 2014. Williams goes on to face Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova in the semi-finals tomorrow.

She is now two wins from holding all four major singles titles, and closer to becoming the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four in one year, but afterwards continued her policy of not talking about the subject, saying “no Slam talk”.

Williams and Sharapova will meet for the 20th time, with the American having won the last 16 encounters.

“It’s been a while but she’s been playing really well, she’s such a fighter,” Williams told BBC Sport.

“I look forward to it. I don’t have anything to lose, I’m just going in there trying to win a match.”

Spanish 20th seed Garbine Muguruza will play Poland’s former finalist Agnieszka Radwanska, the 13th seed, in the other semi-final. — BBC Sport

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