Semi-finals set to get under way

By Piers Newbery
BBC Sport at Wimbledon

Thursday's order of play Day ten photos

Play was finally set to get under way in the Wimbledon women's singles semi-finals at around 1720 BST after a rain delay of more than four hours.

The hold-up led organisers to alter their schedule, with Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams now opening proceedings on Centre Court.

Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mauresmo, who had been due first on Centre Court, were moved to Court One.

The semi-finals will now be played simultaneously - weather permitting.

Sharapova takes on rejuvenated former champion Williams chasing her second straight title.

The Russian second seed has beaten 14th seed Williams twice over the last year but the 2000 and 2001 champion has looked close to her best in recent days.

"She has a big game and is a great fighter," said second seed Sharapova. "Every time we play we always have really tough matches.

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"She gets a lot of balls back so mentally you've got to be ready for an extra ball."

Williams believes that the style of her quarter-final win over Mary Pierce will help her against Sharapova.

"They're two hard-hitters and I think that was good preparation," said the American.

Top seed Davenport - the 1999 champion - has been in imperious form up to now, despatching Kim Clijsters and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last two rounds.

But she expects another kind of challenge against France's Mauresmo, who is likely to attack the net whenever possible.

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"It's going to be a totally different match-up than any of the girls I've played here so far," said Davenport.

"I'm going to have to probably aim my returns a little bit differently because she will be coming in, and try and keep her on the baseline with hard, deep shots."

Mauresmo is the only one of the four semi-finalists without a Grand Slam title to her name, and must overcome the fact that she has lost her last seven matches against Davenport.

"(In the past) she has served pretty well every time," said Mauresmo. "When she's on her rhythm she's tough to beat.

"I must just focus on my game. She hasn't played against the type of game I play this tournament, so we'll see how she reacts to that."