Bryan, Williams siblings forge path to semi-finals

It was a good day for sibling pairs in the Olympic doubles quarter-finals with the Bryan brothers and Williams sisters well on track to complete the golden double for Team USA.

Men’s doubles top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan were the first duo through to the medal play-offs, beating Israelis Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich – the pair who had taken out defending gold medallists Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka – in two tie-break sets, 7-6(4), 7-6(10).

Neither pair dropped serve throughout the one hour 41-minute affair.

Next up for the Bryan twins will be the unseeded Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet – one of the two French pairs through to the semi-finals – after their marathon 6-4, 7-6(3) upset of Serbian third seeds Janko Tipsarevic and Nedad Zimonjic.

Despite making early exits in their singles campaigns Benneteau and Gasquet kept hopes of an all-French men’s doubles decider alive.

Their compatriots, second seeds Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, had a convincing 6-4, 6-2 quarter-final result against Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares, consolation for Tsonga after Novak Djokovic had ended his singles run earlier in the day.

Llodra and Tsonga will square off against unseeded Spaniards David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez, the Spaniards proving too strove for Croatian duo Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig, 6-4, 6-4.

Serena Williams made it two wins from as many matches on Day 6 when she teamed with sister Venus to reach the women’s doubles semi-finals.

The younger of the sisters dropped just five games total between her two matches, the pair’s 6-1, 6-1 drubbing of Italian second seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci following her 6-0, 6-3 quarter-final white-wash of Caroline Wozniacki earlier in the day.

The Williams sisters are unseeded at these Olympics but heavily favoured to add London 2012 to their doubles golds from Sydney and Athens.

They will play third seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova after the Russians battled for 3hr 42mins to see off Chinese pairing Peng Shuai and Zheng Jie 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-4.

An all-American final is widely tipped for the women’s doubles with top seeds Lisa Raymond and Liesel Huber to meet Thursday’s third quarter-final winners, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

The Czech third seeds had few troubles in their straight sets 6-3, 6-4 dismissal of Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chia-Jung and Hsieh Su-Wei.

The London 2012 Olympic tennis is taking place at Wimbledon. Visit the ITF Olympics site for full scores, draws and the London 2012 site for video content, venue and schedule information.