WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND — In a women's game supposedly savaged by anarchy, ailing as a hard-to-market hodgepodge with the No. 1 ranking passed around like a relay baton since Justine Henin retired in May 2008, well, look here.
Somehow, after the ruthless process of a Grand Slam with all the masses who can blast tennis balls and grunt like wounded hyenas and beat the stuffing out of most everybody, Wimbledon has churned out semifinalists with seedings Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Why, it's a pillar of form.
Thursday will present No. 3 Venus Williams, the two-time defending champion and five-time champion who has looked so out-of-this-world here that she said of her quarterfinal Tuesday against Agnieszka Radwanska, "You know, that first set for me was really almost perfect."
It will march out No. 2 Serena Williams, a two-time champion whose game against No. 8 Victoria Azarenka rose to such divine heights (26 winners, seven unforced errors) that the ambitious Azarenka sighed, "She really showed the unbeatable Serena today, I guess."
There'll be that muffled No. 1 Dinara Safina, which will mean possibly another sighting of the invisible demons that circle in her head, barking such doubt that she served 15 double faults in her quarterfinal and said, "Fifteen? I thought it was much more."
And it will showcase No. 4 Elena Dementieva, so quiet here it seems she just turned up off a double-decker bus, when her berth actually marks the persistence of a heady 12 months packed with four Grand Slam semifinal berths and one Olympic gold medal.
What an orderly sport, with three semifinalists who haven't lost a set and the other the No. 1 player in the world who can beat most anyone including herself. So Venus Williams will play Safina, Serena will play Dementieva, and an all-Williams final or an all-Russian final could ensue.
"Can we just play two finals instead?" Dementieva asked.
She might have a worthy plea, because everybody and the strawberry vendors expect another Williams-Williams final, which would become the fourth of the decade and a reprise of 2008. The way Venus and Serena played Tuesday had crowds on separate courts murmuring and pundits quibbling about which woman played more toweringly.
