The quarter-finalists in the women's singles have been confirmed at the Miami Open event, with the intriguing possibility of an all Williams final still being on the cards. Both Serena and her elder sister made the last-eight, with Venus continuing her fine run of success against players ranked in the top ten, beating her little sister's good friend Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets.
Venus is now 34-years-old and currently ranked number 16, but seems determined to regain a top 10 place herself, after dropping down the rankings in recent times due to the effects of Sjogren's Syndrome, a disease she was diagnosed with back in 2011.
She now seems capable of managing the autoimmune disorder when playing on the tour, but of course she is now a few years older and in the twilight of her career. She displayed few signs of her advancing years against the 24-year-old Dane Wozniacki though, defeating the world number five 6-3 7-6. Her confidence going into the match would have been high, having yet to lose to her younger opponent on the tour in six previous matches, although their last game earlier this year in the final in Auckland went to three sets. She has now lost just once against a player in the top ten rankings in her last eight matches, which surely bodes well for her continued rise up the lists. Venus will now face the Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, after she knocked out Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, the 7th seed in three sets after losing the first set.
Serena is also in the last-eight after having few issues in overcoming the Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 6-3. The top seed moves on to face former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki from Germany, who lost just three games in putting out the higher-seeded Italian Sara Errani.
The remaining two quarter-finals will pair Simona Halep, the Romanian number three seed, with the American youngster Sloane Stephens ; another German player, Andrea Petkovic takes on the Czech Karolina Pliskova to complete the last-eight match-ups.
