Battle of the siblings felt like final for Serena

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Serena Williams felt as if she had just won a grand slam title after scraping past her sister Venus 7-6 7-6 in the U.S. Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The American siblings enthralled a capacity crowd of 23,000 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium with the best match of the women's tournament, a cut-and-thrust encounter which lasted two hours 25 minutes.

"I feel like I should have a trophy now," fourth seed Serena told reporters after setting up a meeting with sixth-seeded Russian Dinara Safina in the last four. "Unfortunately I don't and I got to go to the next round.

"I think we played a great match today. It just boiled down to one point here and there. It could have gone anywhere. I just think we were definitely playing the best (match of the tournament) so far.

"I feel like it was at least a semi or the final," she said about the quality of the match. "But it's not, so I'm hoping to play two more matches."

Serena, who edged ahead of her older sister 9-8 in overall meetings, ranked Wednesday's contest as the second best played between the siblings.

"I still think my Australian Open final against Venus was an incredible match," she said, referring to her 7-6 3-6 6-4 victory in 2003. "That was three tough, tough, tough sets."

U.S. Open champion in 1999 and 2002, Serena was especially pleased with her mental approach on Wednesday after losing to Venus in straight sets at this year's Wimbledon final.