The women's draw has been whittled down to eight, and of the four quarterfinals, they do not come much closer than the match featuring Angelique Kerber against Simona Halep.  They are seeded fourth and fifth, respectively, and each of them would dearly love to continue her journey in the hopes of capturing her first Wimbledon crown.

Kerber has the added benefit of having arrived in London knowing she has it in her to win a major.  She stunned everyone, including herself, when she defeated Serena Williams in the championship match to capture her maiden major singles title at the Australian Open.  She has struggled to find consistency since then, but she did reach the semifinals of both Miami and Charleston and defended her title in Stuttgart.  A niggling injury has hampered her progress this spring, but as a former No. 2 and Wimbledon semifinalist, who has two Eastbourne finals and a Birmingham title under her belt, she has what it takes to find success at SW19. 

Halep is hoping that she has what it takes to taste success at Wimbledon too.  Like Kerber, she is a former No. 2 and Wimbledon semifinalist.  She has also won a grass title, that coming at 's-Hertogenbosch, and although she has never won a major, she was on the cusp of doing so with her finalist appearance at Roland Garros two years ago.  She has still been searching to find her best with any regularity in 2016, but with quarterfinal finishes at Indian Wells and Miami, as well as an impressive title run in Madrid, she is starting to find her stride.  She would love to continue building on that momentum by making the final four here.

It is safe to assume that each woman is going to be made to work for it if she is to advance.  Both Kerber and Halep are competitors with exceptional sets of wheels and remarkable consistency from the back of the court.  Neither is bashful about going for the return of serve either.  Halep historically has been the one more willing to be aggressive and take risks, an attitude that is frequently rewarded on the grass.  That said, it should be Kerber who enjoys a slight advantage in this matchup.  She is the bigger of the two and capable of getting more mustard on her shots.  She has the perks that come with being a lefty on serve and is typically better at opening up the court by finding more acute angles. 

Despite her seeming advantages, however, that is not how things have usually played out in their head-to-head.  On the contrary, Halep leads it 3-1, although two of her three wins have come in three sets.  Even so, that, along with the fact that this is not completely uncharted territory for her, should bolster her belief in this match.  Kerber will not be lacking in faith, though.  She did win her last match against Halep, coming earlier this year in Fed Cup play, and it was a decisive victory.  She also looks to be more sure of her shots this season, regularly going for more instead of hanging back and relying too much on her defense and for her opponent to make a mistake.  She has that extra level of confidence that comes with having won a major, and she has by far looked the better of the two through this stage of the tournament.  Their history aside, Kerber ought to be feeling better about her chances.

As rankings and seeding would suggest, this has all the ingredients to be a tight one that could go either way.  Past results in this rivalry point toward a Halep victory, but at present, Kerber should be the one expected to get through.  She has the potential to play bigger ball and has been in the superior form throughout this fortnight.  If she continues at her current level, she is going to be contesting her second Wimbledon semifinal.

There have been more than a handful of shocking results at this year's Wimbledon, so it is only fitting that there would be some surprise quarterfinalists.  Despite being seeded eighth, there had not been much going into the tournament to suggest that Venus Williams would be among them, and yet she has managed to find her best on these hallowed lawns to reach the last eight.  A bigger surprise is her opponent, Yaroslava Shvedova.  She has struggled the last few seasons but finds herself facing the American on Tuesday with a place in the Wimbledon semifinals hanging in the balance.

On paper, Williams is the clear-cut favorite.  She is a former No. 1 who has won 49 career singles titles to just one for the Kazakh.  Seven of those titles have come at majors, with five of them happening right here at Wimbledon.  She has not had much to smile about this season outside her title run in Taiwan, but as her eighth seeding suggests, she has had more to celebrate the last few seasons than her opponent.

In singles, Shvedova is probably best known for pulling off a “golden set” (winning a set without losing a point) at this tournament in 2012.  She is likely better known for her doubles prowess, where she was once ranked as high as No. 3 and still resides in the top 10 today.  But before injuries began to take their toll, Shvedova was not too shabby a singles player either.  She got as high as No. 25 and reached two Roland Garros quarterfinals as well as recording two round-of-16 finishes at Wimbledon.  She has been relegated primarily to the qualifying with a string of early losses throughout this season, but she has accumulated some impressive wins this fortnight and is miraculously in with a chance to quickly and completely turn around her season.

Williams will not make it easy for the Kazakh to continue her dream run, though.  The American serves bigger and gets more juice off her groundstrokes.  She has a decisive advantage when it comes to court coverage and is often very difficult to pass when she makes her way into the forecourt.  If she is having a good serving day, it is difficult to discern where Shvedova might go to earn her points and extract errors from the eighth seed.  Shvedova does have more feel and guile at the net than Williams, but she is going to have to remain committed to staying up on the baseline and looking to move forward if she is to have any chance of getting there.  She also has some variety in her game, particularly off the backhand wing.  If she can mix it up enough to take Williams out of rhythm, that might open a window of opportunity for her.

If an opportunity does present itself, Shvedova needs to have the guts to make the most of it.  Whether or not she does is a big question mark.  She has not done much to inspire confidence of late, and she has never been beyond this stage of a major in singles play.  And while she has produced some sublime tennis to get to this point, including wins over Sabine Lisicki and Lucie Safarova, defeating Williams at this venue is a whole different ballgame.  It is Williams who comes in having all of the experience.  It is Williams who has been at the top of the game.  And it is Williams who has a special relationship with Wimbledon, a venue where she has historically been able to locate her best tennis.  That said, she has had her struggles at the All England Club this year, getting pushed to three sets in matches in which she was expected to move through in routine fashion.  If she has the belief, Shvedova has been around long enough to make the American pay for a similar sub-par performance.

Although not out of the realm of possibility, such a performance from Williams seems unlikely.  She has traditionally been one of those players who becomes more dangerous the deeper she goes in a tournament, and she finished her match in the previous round against Carla Suarez Navarro on such a high note.  Barring something special from Shvedova or a lackluster effort by Williams, the American is marching through to the final four.