91Èȱ¬

The Bulgarian attacked the match from the word go, undaunted by the sight of a WImbledon great on the other side of the net, and broke the Williams serve four times out of eight.

The backhand is undoubtedly her strength. A fierce, flat two-hander which does untold damage both crosscourt and down the line. Her forehand can be a useful shot too, creating angles and changing pace, but it does break down. Venus really could have targeted it more relentlessly, I thought.

Her serve, known in the locker room as another wobbly element to her game, could have cracked under pressure in the final game, especially after her first serve on the first point landed in the rough by the baseline, but she recovered impressively and fell flat on her back at the end in the sort of celebratory scenes we love to see from giant-killers.

Pironkova's magical run to the last four, during which she has yet to drop a set, has made a mockery of a whole series of statistics.

Previously she had never been beyond the second round of a major. She had only won one match at Wimbledon before this year.

and she reached the top 40 two years ago, but since then I must confess she had disappeared off my radar a little.

Now she will have thousands of new fans on semi-final day and, along with a glorious chance to make her fame and fortune.

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guesting on 5 Live Sports Extra during the Serena Williams match,

During the match Keothavong hit a ball which struck Venus in the face. A few weeks later, on the practice courts in Stanford, California, Serena approached the British player and said: "I thought you were a nice girl?".

Keothavong was a bit perplexed, and replied: "I am a nice girl!" But Serena persisted: "You made Venus's ear bleed, I thought you were a nice girl?" As she walked off, Anne was left wondering whether she was serious or winding her up. She still doesn't know.

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has more than a slight connection with Britain.

She lives with a host family in Welwyn Garden City and trains at the nearby The Lawn Tennis Association-funded academy provides her coach John Morris, and a back up sports science team.

The presence of an international-class player, whatever her nationality, is seen as a bonus and an inspiration to the British juniors training at the centre. Babos won the doubles at the French Open and is seeded three at Wimbledon.

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Russian who reached the semi-finals with a comeback win over Kim Clijsters, is another player with a loose association with these shores. Her physio, Jean-Pierre Bruyere, is based in Henley-on-Thames and used to work with Tim Henman and Andy Murray.

Bruyere, a registered chiropractor, combines a part-time life on the tennis circuit with private work from his clinic in Oxfordshire. He was also had a spell treating celebrities in the TV show

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had some pretty nasty setbacks during his career but on Tuesday suffered a cruciate ligament injury which forced him to retire from his opening match in the 'legends' doubles.

He had lost the first five games, in partnership with Todd Martin, against the former Wimbledon champions Todd Woodbridge and Jonas Bjorkman.

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Actor and presenter and X-Factor host Dermot O'Leary were among the celebrities enjoying the women's quarter-final action.

"This is the most amazing place to watch sport" gushed O'Leary as he watched from the 5 Live commentary box.