On a day when the Duchess of Cambridge visited Wimbledon, it was tennis royalty – Serena Williams – who moved one match closer to Steffi Graf’s tally of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.

Serena blew away Russian Elena Vesnina in 48 minutes for the loss of just two games in a ruthless display during the first ladies’ semi-final on Centre Court.

There will be no all-Williams final, though, after Venus’ inspirational run was stopped by rejuvenated German Angelique Kerber, who moved into her second Grand Slam final of the year.

Kerber got off to a quick start and deserved her 72-minute 6-4, 6-4 victory over the older of the two Williams sisters to set up a repeat of January’s Australian Open showpiece when she upset Serena to win her maiden Grand Slam.

Away from the singles, the ladies’ doubles lost the defending champions when Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova overcame Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-4.

After ‘Santina’ won nine titles – including two Grand Slams – during 2015, Thursday’s was their eighth defeat of the season, although the Swiss-Indian team still hold two major titles – the Australian and US Opens.

Serena still has a chance to leave SW19 with two trophies after she and Venus moved into the semi-finals of the doubles after seeing off Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 in the third.

The teams to contest the men’s doubles final were decided on Thursday too and it will be an all-French title-decider on Saturday.

Top seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert fought their way past Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi in five sets. They’ll meet Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, after they beat Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram in four sets.

And it was an historic day for wheelchair tennis as the first ever wheelchair singles matches were contested on Wimbledon’s lawns.

Men’s No.1 seed Stephane Houdet is into the semi-finals after the Frenchman beat Dutchman Maikel Scheffers in three sets, and unseeded Briton Gordon Reid joined him in the last four.

In the ladies’ singles Britain’s Jordanne Whiley is also through to the semi-finals, and next plays Dutchwoman Aniek Van Koot, who shocked the No.2 seed from Japan, Yui Kamiji 6-4 in the third.

 

Day 10 in numbers

• Serena moved into her ninth Wimbledon singles final, and her 15th Wimbledon final overall, a number that could move to 16 should she and Venus reach this year’s doubles final
  
• Serena is one step closer to equalling Steffi Graf on 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Margaret Court is the all-time leader on 24
• Serena dropped just three points on serve during her win over Vesnina
• Serena moved to 61 aces for the Fortnight – 30 more than Vesnina in second place
• Serena's 48-minute win is the shortest Wimbledon semi-final since records began
• Venus was the fifth-oldest woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in the Open era. Billie Jean King holds the record after making the last four at Wimbledon in 1983 aged 39 years, 223 days
• Kerber is only the fifth left-hander to reach the Wimbledon ladies’ singles final in the Open era, joining Martina Navratilova, Petra Kvitova, Monica Seles and Ann Jones
• Serena moves on to 303 Grand Slam match wins, three short of all-time leader Navratilova on 306
• Kerber has reached the final without dropping a set
• Serena has a 21-6 win-loss record in Grand Slam singles finals, the second-best winning percentage of the Open era behind Margaret Court with 11-1
• Kerber will become world No.2 on Monday, regardless of Saturday’s result. Vesnina will move into the top 25 after being world No.122 in mid-February