Venus Williams strode into the semifinals of Wimbledon on Thursday while tournament organisers cast anxious glances to the sky.
Her younger sister Serena, beaten by Justine Henin in the quarters on Wednesday, rates Venus as the best grasscourt player left in the draw and the American proved her pedigree with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Russian fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
"Centre Court has just been good to Williams in the last seven years or so," three-times former champion Venus told reporters. "So it's a good thing if your last name's Williams here."
Bizarrely, with so much doom and gloom over the weather, Venus took a different view.  "Rain is good for me," she said. "I feel like I achieve clarity actually when it rains."
Her focus will now be on bubbly Serbian teenager Ana Ivanovic after she saved three match points in overcoming Nicole Vaidisova 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the last quarterfinal.  The 19-year-old Serb, runner-up at the French Open last month, reached the Wimbledon semifinal for the first time.
A double fault by 18-year-old Vaidisova handed a delighted Ivanovic the match after two hours on the court.
"Today I still probably haven't realised what happened," sixth seed Ivanovic said.  "It was an unbelievable match. To win like this was amazing."
Vaidisova, the 14th seed, said nerves might have cost her the match and that the mental side of her game was something she needed to work on.  "I'm a very emotional player and person," she said. "I think it can go both ways -- I think it can be my strength but it also can be my weakness. But of course there's a limit to it."
Under-fire tournament referee Andrew Jarrett would not share Venus's upbeat analysis of rain, especially sweating over four outstanding men's fourth round matches.  Luckily for him they were all completed so, barring more bad weather, the singles finals should both be played on schedule.
"At the moment we can finish on Sunday and that is what we plan to do, but obviously that can change," Jarrett said.
Marcos Baghdatis and Czech Tomas Berdych obliged by getting through quickly but second seed Rafael Nadal was forced to go the distance again while Novak Djokovic took more than four hours to squeeze past Lleyton Hewitt 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.
Just a month after reaching the Roland Garros semis, fourth seed Djokovic proved his grasscourt credentials in the electrifying fourth-round encounter on Court One.
In a tussle lasting more than four hours and full of gruelling rallies, lunging reaches and tossed rackets, Djokovic eventually broke the dogged resilience of Hewitt.
The Australian 16th seed's exit, his first before the quarter-final here since 2003, means that world number one Roger Federer is the only former champion left in the men's draw.
It looked like the mental and physical energy spent beating Robin Soderling in a third round slog spanning three rainy days had taken its toll on Nadal as he went two sets down to Russian Mikhail Youzhny but he hit back, winning 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
 "After the first two sets maybe I played the best game on grass in my life," said Nadal.
The irrepressible Spaniard will be back in action on Friday against big-serving Berdych after the Czech reached his first grand slam quarter-final by downing grumpy Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman 6-4, 6-0, 6-7, 6-0.
Cypriot Baghdatis conducted a band of raucous fans out on Court 13 with some swashbuckling tennis to beat durable Russian sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko 7-6, 7-6, 6-3 and set up a meeting with Djokovic.
Meanwhile, rain forced Roger Federer’s match against Juan Carlos Ferrero to be pushed to Friday. The scores were level 5-5 in the first set when weather intervened.
Results (prefix denotes seeding):  Men: Fourth round: 4-Novak Djokovic (Ser) bt 16-Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) 7-6(8), 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(5); 2-Rafael Nadal (Spa) bt 14-Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2; 7-Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt 19-Jonas Bjorkman (Swe) 6-4, 6-0, 6-7(6), 6-0; 10-Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) bt 6-Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-3.
Women: (quarterfinals): Ana Ivanovic (Ser) bt Nicole Vaidisova (Cze) 4-6, 6-2, 7-5; 23-Venus Williams (US) bt 5-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 6-3, 6-4.