LONDON -- As the years advance, finishing anything can present a problem. But Tuesday at the All England Club, Serena Williams did it elegantly and emphatically.A 123 mph ace scorched the grass in the service box, sending her back to the semifinals. It was the poignant punctuation of a 6-4, 6-4 thrashing of No. 21 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.Lately, elder sister Venus Williams has been getting a lot of credit for being, well, old, but Serena is not exactly a starry-eyed kid anymore.At 34, she is five years older than the next-oldest quarterfinalist, Elena Vesnina.Not only is Serena the oldest player to win a Grand Slam in the Open era (last year at Wimbledon), but she is also the oldest player to be ranked No. 1. Serena has locked down that honor for the better part of the summer and now has an appealing matchup with unseeded Vesnina, who dominated Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-2 in another quarterfinal.Vesnina was playing her first career quarterfinal in a major and, of course, will see her first semifinal action come Thursday.Serena intimidated Pavlyuchenkova, seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe observed in his role as BBC analyst. Its a tall order to deal with Serena Williams, especially at Centre Court at Wimbledon.And so, the Williams Wimbledon monopoly continues.Serena (six titles) and Venus (five) are both into the semifinals here with a chance to meet in their fifth final. Incredibly, it happened for the first time 14 years ago, when the world was an entirely different place.Its so cool, its great, Serena said of the possibility. I knew she was up, then I saw the score on the court and I was like, Yay.Im excited to get through. It felt really good.Because Serena hasnt won a title in the past three Slams, there is a widespread perception that her game is on the downside. It began when Roberta Vinci ended her hopes for a calendar-year Slam in the US Open semifinals. Then Angelique Kerber beat Serena in this years Australian Open final, and Garbine Muguruza did the same at Roland Garros.That perception is far from the reality.Consider that Serena has reached the final in six of the previous seven Grand Slams. No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic, the hottest player on the planet, has also been to six of seven major finals. Only Serena is in a position to make it seven of eight.She has now won 22 matches in the past four Slams, far ahead of her competitors. With two more here, she would collect her 22nd major singles title, matching Steffi Grafs Open era record.Earlier in this tournament, Serena was oddly passive -- almost too serene, as it were. But a racket-smashing episode against fellow American Christina McHale in the second round seemed to liberate her.Serena looked sharp in the third and fourth rounds, beating Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0 and Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-0. Note the two bagels.On Tuesday, Serenas serve, considered to be the best in womens history, was typically sublime. She had 11 aces and won 36 of 40 (90 percent) of her first-serve points. She did not face a break point and converted the only two she managed against Pavlyuchenkova.Afterward, Serena said she wont be thinking about another rendezvous with Venus when the world No. 1 plays Vesnina.No, Serena said, Im just trying to win my match. One thing Ive learned this year is to just focus on the match.It would be great [if Venus could reach the final]. Obviously, shes such a tough opponent. I want her to win so bad, but not if Im in the final. Cheap New Orleans Pelicans Jerseys . 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Cheap Minnesota Timberwolves Jerseys . -- Former San Diego Chargers safety Paul Oliver was found dead at his Atlanta-area home Tuesday night, and a medical examiner said Wednesday that the ex-player committed suicide. BEIJING -- A native of Shanghai, a city synonymous with the Chinese growth miracle, Yi Weizhong watched up-close as his country morphed into a world economic powerhouse.Yet he cant envisage anything like that happening on the international football scene, doubting that even a coach of Marcello Lippis caliber can transform the dismal national team into a genuine World Cup contender.Its not worth hiring Lippi, Yi said, referring to the 2006 World Cup-winning managers appointment as head coach of the Chinese team.I would rather hire more good coaches for youth training, added Yi, a salesman, who attended a game last week at Shanghais Hongkou stadium. I cant see hope for the next 10 years.Ever since the Chinese Football Association announced last month it had coaxed Lippi out of retirement, the national teams long-suffering fans have greeted the news with indifference, cynicism, and even a hint of outrage.Rather than celebrating the appointment of the most high-profile coach China has ever had, some supporters have balked at the size of Lippis rumored contract.A popular joke circulating on the Wechat messaging service compares it with a nouveau riche family hiring a Harvard professor to tutor their kid.Given the teams record of failure under a string of foreign and Chinese coaches, the problems are more often attributed to the lack of a strong youth program and a misplaced, money-driven focus on the domestic league.Lippi was hired to replace Gao Hongbo, who quit after a 2-0 loss in Uzbekistan last month left China with one point from four qualifying matches and with little hope of making it to Russia in 2018. China has qualified for one World Cup -- the 2002 edition co-hosted by Japan and South Korea -- where it bounced out in the group stage without scoring a goal.Fed up with such results and seeking to close a glaring gap in its international sporting prowess, China this year announced an ambitious football development plan closely identified with President Xi Jinping, a fan of the game. The plan envisions 50 million players joining in the game by the end of the decade and the transformation of the country into a first-rate major footballing power by 2050.The blueprint is seen as another aspect of Xis grand narrative of national rejuvenation -- dubbed his China Dream -- that is generally a point of pride for the public. Yet the mixed reactions to Lippis appointment reflect a deep cynicism when it comes to supporting a football team that is ranked 84th and which also recently lost to Syria.Though Xis administration has been applauded for proposing to build academies and thousands of football fields, the politically-tinged directive has also spurred the domestic league into spending extravagantly on foreign stars and big-name managers. That has prompted talk of a bubble that will burst before any benefits trickle down to the grasssroots.ddddddddddddAgainst that backdrop have been reports in Italian and Chinese media that Lippi would be paid a record salary of 20 million euros a year.The former Juventus and Italy coach told Italian reporters last week the figures were exaggerated, but that hasnt quieted grumbles about yet another football import taking money that could be spent developing Chinese youngsters.Ma Dexing, one of Chinas best-known football commentators, said Xis campaign, with its intended emphasis on developing youth, was already losing its way amid Chinas frenzy of flashy managerial hires and exorbitant player purchases. But Ma said hiring Lippi was justified at whatever cost.His situation is different, Ma said in an interview. The national team is the dragons head -- the symbolic leader. If it doesnt do well, everyone else loses interest in football.Lippi, who guided Italy to World Cup success in 2006, coached Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande from 2012 to 2015, winning domestic titles and the Asian Champions League. Rather than serve merely as another foreign figurehead, Ma said, Lippi has the authority and the experience of working in China to truly overhaul the countrys football organization.In the past they changed the water but not the medicine, Ma said. This is a real revolution.In his first meeting with the Chinese media as national coach, Lippi said his top task would be to evaluate his players psychology and boost their confidence, rather than introduce new tactics. He said it was highly improbable for China to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but urged the nation to back his players.Mark Dreyer, a Beijing-based British sports commentator on China Central Television, said in some ways China resembled England, a country also locked in a perennial cycle of high short-term expectations and intense pressure on the national team, followed by disappointment and cynicism. Chinese football authorities need more independence to do their work, Dreyer said.They need someone who can come in and say, `Give me 20 years, you cant expect results in two years just because you want them, Dreyer said. But how can they suddenly be free from the government and not answering to Xi Jinping?Others are less positive. Outside Shanghais Hongkou stadium, property manager Xu Chao said he preferred watching local club Shenhua because the national teams level of play was simply unwatchable.Its useless to hire an expensive coach when the teams foundation is not good, Xu said.Yan Shihao, a junior in university, said it wasnt just China making a costly bet by hiring Lippi.Lippi chose China, he said. Its a brave decision to gamble with his honor.---Associated Press researcher Fu Ting contributed to this report from Shanghai. cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '