second time at home in 12 playoff games. It was the second straight season that Games 1 and 2 were decided in an extra session, as the Kings took two at New Jersey en route to last years Cup title. "Its lik

LONDON -- Venus Williams sighed at the reporters question.After getting to her first Wimbledon semifinal since 2009, and first at any Grand Slam tournament since a year later, she was asked what she learned in recent times, while dealing with an energy-sapping disease and a series of earlier-than-usual exits from majors.Its hard to say just one lesson, she began. Its easy to be afraid; you have to let fear go. Another lesson is you just have to believe in yourself. You just have to. Theres no way around it. Youve got to believe in yourself. No matter how things are stacked against you, you just have to, every time.Williams never lost that belief, the self-confidence that she still could compete at the highest level, the certainty that it made no sense to give up, to retire from the tour.The good part is, I always felt like I had the game. This is always a plus, when you know you have the game, said Williams, who owns seven Grand Slam titles, including five at the All England Club, but none since 2008. So you just have to keep working until things fall into place.At age 36, they have.On Friday at Wimbledon, Williams will meet No. 4-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany for a berth in the final. Kerber has won three of their previous five matchups.The American is the oldest woman to participate in a major semifinal since Martina Navratilova did it at Wimbledon in 1994 at age 37.Its nice to see, because she puts in the work, said David Witt, Williams coach. She hasnt been back, but not because of her play. Any given tournament, shes capable of beating anybody in the tournament. Its just a matter of winning six, seven matches in a row and keeping your level of play at a high level.Someone who knows all about that is Williams younger sister, No. 1-seeded Serena, who faces 50th-ranked Elena Vesnina in Fridays other semifinal. If Vesnina -- who has never so much as taken a set off Serena in five previous meetings -- were to pull off the upset, she would be the first unseeded woman to reach the Wimbledon final in the Open era, which began in 1968.The 29-year-old Russian had never been past the fourth round at a major before this week.Serena, meanwhile, is bidding for her seventh Wimbledon championship and, of even more significance, her 22nd Grand Slam trophy overall, which would equal Steffi Graf for the most in the Open era (Margaret Court holds the all-time mark of 24).Serena has come close to drawing even with Graf before: At the U.S. Open last September, she lost to Roberta Vinci in the semifinals while aiming for a calendar-year Grand Slam; at the Australian Open in January, she lost to Kerber in the final; at the French Open in June, she lost to Garbine Muguruza in the final.Way back in 1999, the Williams sisters both reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Now here they are, almost 17 full years later, both in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the 11th time. On all 10 previous occasions, one or the other took home the trophy.If both win Thursday, they would play each other on Saturday in what would be the siblings ninth meeting in a Grand Slam final and fifth at Wimbledon.For Serena, it would mean shes participated in the last three major title matches, seven of the past eight.For Venus, it would be her first Grand Slam final since 2009, when she lost at Wimbledon to -- guess who? -- Serena.With everything shes been through, I think its built a ton of character in her, Serena said, and in me, just by being around her.---Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich Basket Yeezy 350 V2 . Three came down to the fourth quarter while quarterbacks continued to shine in all four games; so important to the overall quality of the game. Chaussure Basket Nike Pas Cher . Westbrook has missed 27 games since having a procedure on Dec. 27 to deal with swelling in his injured right knee — the third operation on the knee in nine months. http://www.pascherbasketnike.fr/france-air-max-97-solde.html . Ivanovic was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Hantuchova withdrew after falling 0-40 behind in the second game. The match started slowly for Ivanovic, who surrendered her first two serves as Hantuchova took a 5-3 lead. Basket Nike Outlet . Each of Houstons starters scored in double figures as the Rockets improved to 2-0 against the Spurs this season, with both victories coming on the road. They also moved within 3 1/2 games of San Antonio (22-7) for the lead the Southwest Division. Air Max 95 Pas Cher Homme . It was the second consecutive win for the Pacers (2-5), who lost their first five preseason games. Jeff Teague led the Hawks (1-5) with 17 points and eight assists and Al Horford had 12 points and seven rebounds. Mike Scott scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half.(Sports Network) - The Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks both will try to gain the lead in the Stanley Cup Final on Monday, as the clubs battle in Game 3 at TD Garden. Listen to the game live on TSN 1050 and TSN 690, tonight at 8pm et/5pm pt. The Bruins and Blackhawks are tied at 1-1 in this best-of-seven series after splitting a pair of overtime games in Chicago. The Blackhawks won Wednesdays opener 4-3 in triple overtime, but Boston bounced back with a 2-1 OT win in Saturdays Game 2 at United Center. Boston, the Easts fourth seed, is 7-2 as the host team in these playoffs and has won six straight at TD Garden since dropping Game 5 of the first round against Toronto on May 10. The Bruins also get to host Game 4 on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Chicago, this years Presidents Trophy winners, has posted a 3-4 record as the guest during this postseason. Boston earned a split in Chicago after Daniel Paille scored at 13:48 of overtime to give the Bruins a 2-1 win on Saturday. A wraparound from behind the Chicago net along the right boards wasnt handled by the Blackhawks Brandon Bollig, and Bostons Adam McQuaid was able to push the puck down to Tyler Seguin. From the mid-boards, Seguin fired the puck over to the slot, where Paille ripped it home into the right corner for the win. Paille also had the assist on Chris Kellys goal that tied the contest in the second period and Tuukka Rask was strong in a sloppy first period for Boston and finished the game with 33 saves. "If you look at our game I thought we werent there at first," said Boston head coach Claude Julien. "We started to get better as the game went on, but Tuukka bailed us out. I told our guys that we have to show up for these games from the start or were going to get into trouble." Rask kept the score at 1-0 in the first period despite his team getting outshot 19-4 in the opening 20 minutes.dddddddddddd. He has turned aside 92-of-97 shots in the first two games of this series and is boasting a stout .944 save percentage in this years playoffs. "Well, we definitely were in survival mode there for a bit," said Rask. "It looked like they had more guys out there than we did. They were bouncing on every single puck in front of net, had a lot of chances. We definitely played pretty bad." Patrick Sharp scored the only goal on Saturday for the Blackhawks in the first period, and Corey Crawford made 26 stops in the loss. Chicago had won Game 1 by a score of 4-3 in triple-overtime after rallying from a two-goal deficit in the third period, but failed to repeat the magic as the team lost for just the second time at home in 12 playoff games. It was the second straight season that Games 1 and 2 were decided in an extra session, as the Kings took two at New Jersey en route to last years Cup title. "Its like the second period, I thought we lost the pace of the game on that end of the rink," said Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville. "We had the perfect start to the game, then we stopped doing what made us successful. We stood around, they countered." Boston was 0-for-2 on the power play while Chicago went 0-for-3. This series marks the first time Original Six franchises have met in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1979, when Montreal defeated the New York Rangers in five games. This years Cup Finals also is a battle between recent champions. Boston beat Vancouver in 2011 to win the Cup, while Chicago took down Philadelphia the year before to win it all. Boston has won five of its six postseason meetings against Chicago. ' ' '