Venus Williams survives Sanchez scare

But in difficult, cold and windy conditions on the Olympic centre court, she rallied from a set down to pull through 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Williams now faces her American teammate Monica Seles, to whom she has never lost, for a place in Wednesday’s final. The other semi-final will pit home favourite Jelena Dokic against Elena Dementieva, the tenth seed from Russia on Monday.

Dokic earned her shot at a place in the final by beating South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer.

The 17-year-old, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon this year, beat the 7th seeded Coetzer, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 to the delight of Australia’s legions of tennis fans after the country’s men’s stars Pat Rafter, Mark Philippoussis and Lleyton Hewitt all made early exits.

Dementieva came through against Austria’s Barbara Schett 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.HAAS DUMPS CORRETJA: In the men’s singles, an astonishing run of upsets continued when Germany’s Tommy Haas dumped sixth seed Alex Corretja of Spain out of the tournament 7-6 (9-7), 6-3.

Haas advanced to a quarter-final clash with powerful Belarussian Max Mirnyi, who ousted Argentina’s Mariano Zabaleta, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.

Switzerland’s Roger Federer will play Karim Alami of Morocco in the other quarter final in the top half of the draw.

Federer, a former World No One in juniors, ousted Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden while Alami ended the run of France’s Fabrice Santoro, the man who eliminated World No One Marat Safin in the first round.

Corretja’s defeat means only three of the 16 seeds Gustavo Kuerten, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Juan Carlos Ferrero have made it to the last eight of the tournament. They are all in the bottom half of the draw which means at least the silver medal will go to a non-seeded player.