Venus Williams won the battle of the former champions when she wore down fellow American Lindsay Davenport 6-2 2-6 6-1 to stride into the Wimbledon semi-finals.
Fourth seed Venus, a winner in 2000 and 2001, reached her fourth consecutive semi-final at the All England Club as she finally overpowered Davenport from the baseline to set up a showdown with second seed Kim Clijsters.
Unperturbed by a 80-minute rain break early in the contest, Venus clubbed the 1999 champion from the baseline in the opening set as Davenport's forehand rapidly started to collapse. Breaking the brittle Davenport serve for the third time in the match, Venus claimed the first set with a blazing forehand crosscourt winner.
But Davenport refused to surrender her title hopes and frustrated her opponent in the second with a flurry of blistering groundstrokes to level the match after Venus floated a service return long. The world number four, however, kept her nerve in a high-octane final set to seal victory after one hour 27 minutes with a bludgeoning smash.
Meanwhlile, on court number one Belgian Kim Clijsters survived a major scare before marching into her first Wimbledon singles semi-final, defeating Italy's Silvia Farina Elia 5-7 6-0 6-1.
The world number two had only dropped 12 games in reaching the last eight, but she was made to work overtime against the 31-year-old who is enjoying her best run here on her 12th consecutive appearance.
After squandering three set points on her way to dropping a rain-interrupted first set -- her first of the tournament -- the 20-year-old Clijsters finally got to grips with her cagey opponent and rattled off the next nine games to take control.
The Italian, who made her Wimbledon debut when Clijsters was eight, broke the spell at 0-3 in the third, but by that stage the battle was all but lost. Clijsters, watched by boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt, wrapped up victory with her seventh ace in one hour and 24 minutes.
Reuters