| Thursday, 3 July 2008 Written by Adam Lincoln Venus and Serena Williams dodged rain delays and second-set fightbacks by their respective opponents to set up a family affair on ladies’ singles final day. As their fellow seeds have dropped one by one, the sisters have looked more and more convincing, and on Thursday they even advanced by similar scorelines. Defending champion Venus completed her 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) win over Elena Dementieva without interruption from the weather, but the Russian fifth seed might have been praying for the heavens to open during the first set of their match. After electing to serve first – an intriguing choice given the scrutiny of her weak delivery over the years – Dementieva was broken by Williams in the first game. Had she been able to convert one of four chances for an immediate break back, the match may have been very different. Instead, the Russian only just managed to get on to the scoreboard in the opener. The second set was closer, as Dementieva displayed at least some of the form that got her to the last four at Wimbledon for the first time. In fact, her service statistics were no worse than Venus’ – both made 63% of first serves, and both issued three double-faults. Across the match there wasn’t much to separate them on unforced errors either – 22 versus 19. All this helped Dementieva force a tie-break, but ultimately the American’s more aggressive grass court play won through: Williams made 21 net forays, winning 15 of them, while the Russian won four of six approaches. So a delighted Venus bounced into her seventh Wimbledon final, where she will be gunning for a fifth title. For the third time, younger sister Serena will be her rival. Like Venus, Serena was little troubled in the first set by Zheng Jie, China’s first Grand Slam semi-finalist and conqueror of seeds Dominika Cibulkova, Ana Ivanovic, Agnes Szavay and Nicole Vaidisova. But in the second set the wild card, who began the tournament ranked 133 in the world, began to outwit the two-time champion to keep it close. Coming back from a rain delay, she even held a set point at 6-5, but it was not to be. As she has done so many times in the past, Serena came through in the clinch to win 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). “I respect her as a player more than anyone else on the tour,” said Venus of her sister, a two-time champion here. Let’s see if she still feels that way after Serena steals her breakfast on Saturday, as she has jokingly threatened to do. While the sisters will enjoy two nights’ of sleep before their face-off, German veteran Rainer Schuettler must return on Friday after beating another wizened campaigner, Frenchman Arnaud Clement, in a marathon five-set quarter-final. At 5 hrs 12 mins, the match, held over from Wednesday due to bad light, was the joint second-longest men’s singles match in Wimbledon history, with Schuettler saving a match point along the way. You won’t hear him complaining about lack of rest, though. The former world No.5 and Australian Open runner-up is on the comeback from injury and illness, and before Wimbledon had only won four matches all season. Now, unseeded and at the grand old age of 32, he faces the delicious prospect of taking on second seed Rafael Nadal in the semis.
| 
