Tennis: Focused Venus has no qualms over inflicting big sister act on Serena

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 10:00

WIMBLEDON has many traditions. From barley water to strawberries, it's the familiarity that makes it so special.

And now there is a new tradition developing.

With the exception of 2006, when Amelie Mauresmo beat Justine Henin, there has been a Williams in the women's final every year since the turn of the Millennium.

Venus has won five times and Serena twice. Tomorrow will be the fourth occasion that the final has been a family affair.

It will also be their 20th career meeting and the head-to-head is deadlocked at ten wins each. However, yesterday's semi-finals were not quite as predictable as they may have seemed. Serena survived a match point scare to scrape past Elena Dementieva in the longest women's semi-final in the open era while Venus simply brushed aside top seed Dinara Safina with a brutal 6-1, 6-0 win that bordered on bullying.

"Serena is such a fighter, that is the hardest thing to get past when you play her," said Venus.

"I'm happy she's in the final but now I have to prepare to face her and beat her. I don't really want her to lose but I sure want me to win. I don't like to see her disappointed in any way but I want my titles too. However, I'm still the big sister."

Serena hailed her win over Dementieva but cutely put the pressure back on Venus by labelling her the favourite.

"I was down pretty much the entire match, that's why it felt so good to win," she said. "Elena was playing personal best tennis and to keep that up for three sets is not very easy. I'm going into the final with nothing to lose. Venus is playing her best tennis but I'm just staying positive.

Dementieva and a shell-shocked Safina both admitted there was little they could do in the face of their opposition.

World No.1 Safina said "Venus gave me a pretty good lesson. It would be different on another surface. I am not happy with the end result. She is just too good on grass. It's definitely disappointing to finish the match in less than one hour, and to win only one game. I have to accept it. But this is not my favourite surface, and I still reached the semi-final. So hopefully I can change my mentality on grass and come with a different expectation next year."

Safina has now been thrashed in three consecutive Grand Slams. She won just three games against Serena in the Australian final, six against Svetlana Kuznetsova at Roland Garros and just one in yesterday's semi. Put those three matches together and she wouldn't win two sets, a very depressing stat for someone the WTA Tour want the world to believe is their No.1 player.