*For the second consecutive year and fourth time overall, Venus Williams will face her little sister Serena in the ladies finals at Wimbledon.
*For the second consecutive year and fourth time overall, Venus Williams will face her little sister Serena in the ladies finals at Wimbledon.
The sisters arrived at the July 4th showdown in two completely different fashions.
Serena went on Centre Court first and came within a point of losing to Beijing Olympics gold medalist Elena Dementieva before grunting and grinding her way to a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 victory that lasted 2 hours, 49 minutes — longer than any Wimbledon women's semifinal or final on record, reports the Associated Press.
Venus followed and dominated the No. 1-ranked woman, Dinara Safina, in an astonishingly easy 6-1, 6-0 win that took merely 51 minutes and equaled the most lopsided semifinal result here over the last 74 years.
In Saturday's final, Venus will be trying to win her sixth Wimbledon and eighth Grand Slam title. Serena will be trying to win her third Wimbledon and 11th Grand Slam title. It's the eighth all-Williams major final (Serena leads 5-2) and their 21st meeting on tour (they're tied 10-all).
"The more we play, the better it gets. When we play our match on Saturday, it's for everything. This is what we dreamed of when we were growing up in Compton, 20-something years ago," Serena said. "This is what we worked for, and this is what we want. Like, I wanted her to win today, and she wanted me to win today."
Venus has won 20 consecutive matches at Wimbledon; if she makes that 21, she will become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win the tournament three straight years. On Friday, the day before they face off for the singles title, the sisters will wake up at the house they're sharing during the tournament and head to the All England Club to play as a pair in the doubles semifinals, an event they won last year.