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Kafelnikov and Haas will play for men's gold Associated Press SYDNEY, Australia -- The only thing that seems to stop Venus Williams is rain. A shower delayed the start of play for 3½ hours, but Williams then clinched what will be her second Olympic medal Tuesday, teaming with sister Serena for a semifinal victory in doubles. The Williamses won 11 of the final 13 games to beat Els Callens and Dominique Van Roost of Belgium 6-4, 6-1. The sisters said the delay didn't faze them. "We would have liked to have gotten out of here earlier, but it wasn't meant to be," Venus said. Their opponents in the final Thursday (Wednesday night EDT) will be Kristie Boogert and Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands. "Winning a gold medal would be a fantastic thing for sure," Serena said. Venus, seeded second, will play for the gold in singles Wednesday (Tuesday night EDT) against No. 10 Elena Dementieva of Russia. No. 5 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia and unseeded Tommy Haas of Germany will meet in the men's final Thursday (Wednesday night EDT). Kafelnikov beat Arnaud Di Pasquale of France 6-4, 6-4, while Haas defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2. The tournament is just the third the Williams sisters have played together this year, but they've won 32 of their past 33 matches together, and three of the last four Grand Slam tournaments they've played. The sisters fell behind the Belgian team 1-3, and there was concern on the U.S. side when Venus received a shoulder rub from Serena during a changeover at 2-1 in the second set. "I was just stretching," Venus said. She appeared fine as she served out the victory, finishing with a perfect backhand lob for a winner on match point. Van Roost and Callens tried playing from the baseline for much of the match. "We knew if we stayed at the net they'd have a target, and that's their strongest point," Van Roost said. "It worked for a while. But they are very powerful. It was hard to keep the ball in the court, because the balls were coming so fast." Haas, 22, is a former top-10 player with just one career title. He is ranked 48th and was runner-up at Munich in his best finish this year. Haas' half of the draw had just one seeded player left after the first round. He upset No. 8 Alex Correjta in the third round. Kafelnikov, 26, is bidding for his first Olympic gold to go with two Grand Slam titles. |  | ALSO SEE Venus beats Dementieva to win singles gold Seles takes bronze for first big win in years | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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