Champion Venus Williams powered through to her seventh Wimbledon final on Thursday with a matter-of-fact 6-1, 7-6 victory over Russian Elena Dementieva.
Williams, aiming for her fifth Wimbledon title, launched an array of blistering serves and ferocious groundstrokes at the 26-year-old fifth seed and came up to the net to unleash an aggressive overhead shot across the court to take the first set.
The Russian, appearing in the last four at Wimbledon for the first time, made more of a contest of it in the second set, managing a rare break of the Williams serve and surprising her 28-year-old opponent with some excellent passing shots.
Seventh seed Williams won the second set tiebreak after a series of errors by Dementieva, sealing it with a powerful forehand. She will face her younger sister for the third time in a Wimbledon final if Serena beats China's Zheng Jie in the day's other semi-final.
