Serena Williams would not bet against herself winning the Wimbledon title for the third time in a row, and she would not bet against another all-Williams final either.

Serena and Venus both came into the Championships extremely short of matches after injury and illness, with Serena having been out of action for almost a year, and the first two rounds were tricky for both.

Venus was taken all the way to 8-6 in the third before seeing off 40-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm in the second round, while Serena dropped sets to both Aravane Rezai and Simona Halep.

The third round showed both in ominous form, though, with Venus thrashing Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-0 6-2 and Serena making light work of a potentially dangerous opponent in Maria Kirilenko to win 6-3 6-2.

The seventh seed is the one all the other players will be most wary of, but she thinks Venus deserves to be considered a real title contender once again.

Serena said of the five-time champion: ‘‘She's playing way more confident. That's obviously in turn inspiring me. She's working really hard and doing really well.''

Venus will have the chance to exact revenge on the player who knocked her out in the quarter-finals last year when she meets Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the fourth round today.

Serena, meanwhile, looks to have a tough assignment against ninth seed Marion Bartoli, who is showing her best form since a surprise run to the final at Wimbledon four years ago, when she lost to Venus.