By Mike McIntyre

Tennis fans in Dubai were treated to a blockbuster Thursday night to kick off their weekends with both Williams sisters in action on Stadium Court. Earlier in the day Kaia Kanepi continued her recent winning streak by defeating qualifier Elena Visnina 6-3, 7-5 and Virginie Razzano knocked off number five seed Vera Zvonareva 7-6(7), 7-5. This was just a warm-up for the two main events that would follow. The court was packed for the first time all tournament to get a glimpse of the Williams sisters back to back. Most were hoping for an all-Williams semi-final to emerge and they would not be disappointed.

In the first match Venus Williams defeated Elena Dementieva 6-3, 6-3 with relative ease. She was never in trouble against the Russian despite the fact that Dementieva had never lost in Dubai and has been on fire so far in 2009 with a 21-2 record coming into the match. Dementieva seemed unprepared for the power that Venus unleashed on her throughout both sets. In the first set especially there was never any doubt of the outcome as Venus finished if off in a quick 31 minutes. While Dementieva is having a terrific year thus far, and her serve is much improved from the last time I saw her play, she could not match the powerful groundstroke’s that Venus launched at her all night long.

The second set began much closer and after 31 minutes this time the score was tied at 3-3.  Dementieva's errors decreased and the rallies lengthened. The quality of the match was reflected in the buzz of the crowd who cheered equally for both players. Serving at 3-3 Dementieva's serve would let her down however with two double faults to give Williams the crucial break. She would lose the match 6-3, 6-3 and fail to advance to defend her title from a year ago.

Dementieva was noticeably upset in the post match press conference after having her Dubai streak come to an end. Speaking about the reason for the loss she said,

"I just feel like I did too many mistakes. I was missing every single return; it's really hard to play like that. I was not aggressive enough today."

Venus was asked about what she might have to look out for if playing Ivanovic or her sister the next day and replied,

"I'm gonna go out there and play my game to the best of my ability that's pretty much what I do every time."

The next match was slightly closer than the first, yet Serena was never truly troubled by Serbia's Ana Ivanovic. Ivanovic brought a more varied approach against Serena then Dementieva tried against Venus in the previous match. She came to net from time to time although this tactic received mixed results and often Serena was able to blast the ball right through her it seemed. One thing that impressed me about Ivanovic was that she never seemed to get frustrated on court no matter what the score was. That calm composure under pressure is something that many of the players on the WTA tour seem to be lacking.

Serena won the first set 6-4 in 40 minutes and then seemed to take a mental break from the match to start the second set. She went down an early break and I noticed that she stopped shrieking when she hit the ball which signaled a lack of aggression. It was as if she was a completely different player. This lethargic behavior did not last long though, and she broke back quickly enough. At 4-4 Serena stepped it up and ripped a couple of returns on Ivanovic's serve that the Serb could not handle. She would move on 6-4, 6-4. It really came down to too much power for Ivanovic to handle.

In the post match press conference Ivanovic was all smiles and did not seem bothered at all by the fact she was out of the tournament. This approach was in stark contrast with Dementieva's dejection, and showed me that perhaps Ivanovic never really expected to beat Serena.

For her part, Serena exuded confidence in every statement she made afterwards. When asked about Ivanovic's approach to the match and frequent trips to the net she said,
 
"I think she hit really, really hard and I think that was her whole game was to go for broke. I like when people come to the net against me, I really do, next time I'll play her I'll know what to expect more and I'll look forward to her coming to the net a lot."

Although both Venus and Serena played similar power games on the court, their responses on the Shahar Peer/Andy Ram visa situation were quite different. It had just been announced earlier in the day that Ram had secured a visa and would be competing in the ATP doubles tournament here next week.

Venus took a distanced approach from the issue when she said,

"I think it's great because we're here just as athletes, we have no platform, we just play tennis and we're entertainers and that's it."

I was surprised that she felt as athletes, or entertainers as she put it, they had no platform. Who apart from them has a better platform to speak out about this issue? Fans across the globe will be far more inclined to listen when Venus Williams speaks on the issue rather than tour Chief Larry Scott.

Serena was more passionate in her response and stated,

"I think due to the press and the WTA talking about it and talking with the tournament, and the pressure they felt after Shahar Peer not getting the visa opened the opportunity for this other player (Ram) to get a visa. Because we didn't sit down and just say, "oh it's ok", we kind of stepped up to it and opened the doors for someone else which I think is great. Obviously I'm not for discrimination, clearly...I think that in the day and age like this everyone bleeds red blood and everyone is at equal opportunities."

Tennis continues Friday with the Kanepi/Razzano semi-final in the morning and the much anticipated all-Williams sisters clash in the evening. The winner of that night match will be heavily favored to defeat either of the two giant-killers from the daytime session. I'd have to give Venus the edge in the night match as she seems to be the fresher of the two and has been more mentally solid so far this week. Although the sisters seem to be trading wins lately against each other, so perhaps Serena is due for a victory tonight.