Olympic Tennis - Maria Sharapova vs. Maria Kirilenko (13:30 BST)

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by Crunch Sports Staff

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Maria Kirilenko (credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Maria Sharapova takes on Maria Kirilenko this afternoon in an all-Russian women's singles semi-final at the London 2012 Olympic Games (13:30 BST start).

Russia is guaranteed an Olympic medal this weekend as the two glamour girls of the sport go head to head in the last four at Wimbledon.

Speaking ahead of today's clash at the All-England Club, Sharapova took the chance to reflect on how much tennis has grown in her homeland over the past three Olympics.

"When I was growing up, tennis wasn't very popular yet," she said.

"A few men's players were, especially Kafelnikov. But apart from that, in the women's field there wasn't too much competition. So I hoped one day that could be different.

"You've seen over the years how much it's developed in Russia, how many more opportunities there are for younger kids starting up, opportunities maybe I or the others in my age group didn't really have, as far as facilities, coaching, all of that.

"I'm really happy one of us will have a chance to go for gold."

This one will certainly be a noisy affair as both Russians are prodigious grunters, and they were upping the volume in Thursday's quarter-finals. Kirilenko enjoyed the edge over former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova as the Czech sprayed errors everywhere on a very windy day at Wimbledon. After a couple of scares against Laura Robson and Sabine Lisicki, Sharapova knew she'd have to raise her game against the great Belgian Kim Clijsters and she did just that to win 6-2 7-5.

Sharapova leads 3-2 on the head-to-head, beating her friend at Indian Wells earlier this year, but she had to come from 6-2 3-0 down to do so.

With a guaranteed silver medal on the line, expect this one to be equally tight.

Prediction: Sharapova in three.

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