Wimbledon Women's Quarters Fizzle

The women took center stage at Wimbledon today as all four quarterfinals took to the lawns of Centre Court and Court 1. Unfortunately, the clashes of the last eight women failed to provide much in the way of compelling tennis matches.

Each match-up featured one of the top four seeds. In each case, the higher seeded woman advanced to Thursday's semifinals. Three of the matches were routes as Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Elena Dementieva continued their romps through the tournament. None of these three were really tested in their matches which was a little surprising since Serena was up against Victoria Azarenka who has emerged as the most exciting new star of 2009. Venus dispatched Agnieszka Radwanska while Dementieva straight-setted Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone.

Only the match-up between top-ranked Dinara Safina and unseeded Sabine Lisicki provided any suspense. Lisicki won the first set and kept it close in the second. By the time Safina pulled out that second set, Lisicki was showing obvious signs of fatigue on an unusually warm day. Safina had no troubles wrapping up the victory despite a streak where she missed seven serves in a row.

Today's matches highlighted what has been a less-than-exciting Wimbledon for the ladies. From the moment the draw came out, it looked like Venus and Serena were on a collision course for the finals. Through five rounds of play, an all-Williams final is looking more and more inevitable. While it's always great to see two bona fide stars battle it out in the finals, it would have been nice to see either Williams sister pushed a little bit. There's very little drama in a pre-ordained final.

But who knows, maybe Dementieva or Safina can finally give the Williamses a taste of competition. Dementieva, who recently struggled with fatigue, has looked especially good at this year's Wimbledon. She was a semifinalist last year and has the big match experience that could trouble Serena.

Safina, on the other hand, seems like her own worst enemy. She has talked a lot about hating grass, but hopefully she has revised that opinion now that she's a Wimbledon semifinalist. Can she push Venus though? Hard to say. If she believes she can take out the two-time defending champion, then she's got a shot. If she's content to make it deep in this draw, then the match will be over quickly.

Let's all pray to the tennis gods that we get some good matches on the ladies side of the tournament finally.