Richard Williams took his leave of the 122nd All England Championships yesterday, flying home to Florida. Curious timing, given that his daughters will be contesting their third Wimbledon singles final here today – not to mention seeking their third doubles title later in the afternoon. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, rather than getting back, the man who has guided and coached Venus and Serena to positions of dominance at the annual gathering in SW19 was getting away.

You could have been excused for forgetting that while Wimbledon squirmed over the possibility that another all-Williams women's final tomorrow might have all the competitive edge of a session of pass the parcel – or in this case the silver – in the family parlour, there was still a live contender from outside the extraordinary empire made by the eccentric Richard, father of Venus and Serena.

For a while it was the talk of tennis. Did the Williams family have agreements over who would win when Serena and Venus played each other? The family always denied it and the controversy all but died when Serena started to get the better of her elder sister on a regular basis, but it reopened here yesterday when Elena Dementieva, looking ahead to tomorrow's all-Williams final, said: "For sure it's going to be a family decision."

The seeds of the women's competition have never found the turf of these courts quite so barren; but nor, equally, is there much in the way of fresh, green roots. For not even Zheng Jie, the wild card whose survival to the semi-finals testifies to the fate of the four women originally drawn to contest them, can quite vitiate a sense that the passage of the Williams sisters has been mapped out rather more inexorably.

The Williams sisters moved closer to another Wimbledon final today, using their power tennis to cruise into the semi-finals in straight sets.

It was time for Jelena Jankovic to go home after she had raided the last remnants of her medicine cabinet. To the vast roll of bandages that had supported her left knee through the third round, where she jarred it, were added anti-inflammatories and an elaborate sticking plaster pattern which was draped around it yesterday. Tissues accompanied her out after each end change and when things were really looking down she grabbed at a pack of energy tablets thrust out by her coach.

After a terrible week for her compatriots, the No 2 seed made sure that further insult did not follow injury on 'celebrity Saturday', writes Brian Viner

Williams takes full advantage of her rivals' misfortune with clinical defeat of Martinez

The England coach, Tony Smith, has been able to pick from strength for tomorrow’s Test in France, which means that Castleford’s 18-year-old prodigy, Joe Westerman, will have to wait a little longer for his first cap.

Naomi Cavaday is the Halley's Comet of British sport. For months on end the 19-year-old from Chislehurst hurtles around the tennis universe, noticed by nobody in particular, before making a spectacular but fleeting appearance in the Wimbledon sky. The latest sighting was here on Centre Court, where she briefly threatened to eclipse Venus only to disappear over the horizon once again.

The defending champion returns from injuries and the world of fashion determined to lead the Williams charge

The Williams sisters live together and play together and at the French Open here yesterday they lost together. Both went out in the third round, Serena losing 6-4, 6-4 to Katarina Srebotnik, of Slovenia, and Venus going down 7-5, 6-3 to Italy's Flavia Pennetta in the day's final match.