Lisa Raymond took one step closer to an Olympic medal Wednesday when she and doubles partner Liezel Huber defeated Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals.
Raymond and Huber, the world’s top-ranked doubles team, efficiently defeated the Russians 6-3, 6-3 in a match that took just over 70 minutes.
The American duo outplayed the Russians in nearly every aspect of the game including first-serve percentage (64 percent to 54 percent), unforced errors (6 to 17) and break point conversions (5 to 2).
Raymond, a native of Wayne, Pa., is now in the final four to earn a medal -- the 11-time Grand Slam champion says a medal is all that’s missing from her trophy case.
Raymond and Huber must now wait for their next opponent as some second-round matches have yet to be played.
At least Raymond can stay loose. She opens Mixed Doubles play Wednesday afternoon as she teams up Mike Bryan (the pair just won Mixed doubles at Wimbledon last month) to take on Sara Errani and Andreas Seppi of Italy.
