All-Williams At Wimbledon

U.S. Sisters To Meet For The Third Time In Tennis' Biggest Final

(AP)  Venus and Serena Williams won in straight sets Thursday to set up their third all-sister Wimbledon final and seventh Grand Slam championship matchup.

Defending champion and four-time winner Venus beat Elena Dementieva 6-1, 7-6 (3), then two-time champ Serena overcame two rain delays and served 14 aces to down China's Zheng Jie 6-2, 7-6 (5).

It will be the first all-Williams final since 2003, when Serena beat her older sister in the championship match for the second year in a row.

Serena holds an 8-7 career edge over Venus, including 5-1 in Grand Slam finals. Since Venus won the U.S. Open in 2001, Serena has won five straight of their major finals.

"She's a tough opponent," Serena said. "I think she'll be the toughest person I've played. I'm excited."

Said Venus: "It's every Williams for themself."

Venus overpowered the fifth-seeded Dementieva in the first set and then prevailed in an error-filled tiebreaker to improve her record to 7-0 in semifinals at the All England Club.

"I am dying for S. Williams to get through," said the 28-year-old Venus, who hasn't dropped a set in five matches and will be going for her seventh Grand Slam title.

Venus then went back out to watch her 26-year-old sister, who sat through rain breaks in both sets before cranking up her big serve, saving a set point in the second set and finishing off the 133rd-ranked Zheng to put her one win away from a ninth Grand Slam crown.

After Zheng dumped a second serve into the net on match point, Serena looked more relieved than anything to get through the match. Venus fiddled with her fingernails as she watched alongside their father, Richard, in the players' box.

"She definitely pushed me," Serena said of Zheng, the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal and first wild-card entrant to get this far at Wimbledon . "Unbelievable, and not only that she played a great game. She played like she had nothing to lose and she didn't.

"I wanted to do more than make a Wimbledon final," she added. "I'm just happy to be back in a Grand Slam final."

In men's play, 32-year-old Rainer Schuettler outlasted Arnaud Clement 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (7), 8-6 in a match that took two days to complete. The German saved a match point at 5-4 in the fifth set before pulling out a 5 hour, 12 minute victory that sends him into the semifinals against No. 2 Rafael Nadal.

[keithle1]

Serena has a big chest & a big ole booty.

Venus reminds me of a snake. Venus the Viper.

The appeal of these sisters fighting to win a Grand Slam final has long since faded.

We need some new American female tennis talent. You would think we would have produced one or two top contenders by now. Some fresh faces to offset all of the Russians & Serbs.

Their father is a trip. Photographs everything they do except going to the bathroom.

GO NADAL!!!!

[runningralph]

If sports promoters really wanted a big payday, they should try to get a doubles match between the Williams sisters and Nadal and Federer. These girls are the epitome of female athletes. I find them very attractive. If I were 40 years younger I would call them up.

[radman5000]

I agree with whisky rocker, I think they could beat the snot out of the two pretty boys playing in the mens finals if the all got into a barroom brawl. they have to have some serious roid rage

[whiskyrocker]

They should drug test these 2 ladies. I think there on steroids.

[keithle1]

Who cares. I guess the network likes it. Beats an unknown from China playing an unknown from Russia.
But the real action will be a Federer-Nadal final.
That''ll be exciting.

[fee1free4u]

God these 2 sisters are bu*tt-ugly. I may be brain-damaged for life from being forced to see this photo.

[adek1]

The sisters don''t speak 5 languages! You are crazy!

[poppykock1]

thats great they deserve it

[talkingham]

It''ll be like watching two men play.

[ekucrew]

zzzzzzz the ratings will snooze as before when these two met in the final. Tennis (male and female players) has few up and comers as in years past. One of the best Wimbledon upsets ever was Zina Garrison dismissing Steffi Graf in 1990 to reach the finals.

[acolton1]

SWEET

I HOPE THE GAME LASTS LONGER THEN THE FIRST ONE DID.

The Williams Sisters RULE !