Rain has once again delayed play at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, but not before former champion Venus Williams of the United States made the semifinals by beating Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.
Williams, seeded 23rd in the tournament, beat the fifth-seeded Russian in just under an hour-and-a-half (6-3, 6-4). In the semifinals, Venus faces sixth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, a three-set winner over Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic (4-6, 6-2, 7-5).
In men's fourth-round matches, three-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal of Spain overcame a two-set deficit to beat 14th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny (4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, and 6-2). In the quarterfinals, Nadal faces Czech player Tomas Berdych, who defeated Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman in four sets (6-4, 6-0, 6-7, 6-0).
Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus scored a straight-sets win over Russian sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko (7-6, 7-6, 6-3). Baghdatis faces Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the quarterfinals. Djokovic ousted 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia in four sets, (7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6).
World number one Roger Federer of Switzerland was tied with Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, 5-5 in a quarterfinal match when play was suspended by rain. American Andy Roddick never started his quarterfinal against Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
Organizers are still trying to finish play after rain plagued the two-week tournament. Wimbledon took the traditional day off last Sunday, despite a backlog of matches due to rain delays.
