Defending champion and four-time winner Venus beat Elena Dementieva 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). Then two-time champ Serena overcame two rain delays and served 14 aces in downing China’s Zheng Jie 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
Saturday will be the first all-Williams final at any tournament since 2003, when Serena beat her older sister in the Wimbledon title 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.”
Venus said: “It’s every Williams for themself.”
Venus overpowered the fifth-seeded Dementieva in the first set and then prevailed in an error-filled tie breaker in improving her record to 7-0 in semifinals at the All England Club.
“I am dying for S. Williams to get through,” said Venus, 28, 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, which 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 maker a Wimbledon final. I’m just happy to be back in a Grand Slam final.”
Richard Williams said he would fly back to the United States today and doesn’t plan to watch a single point of the final on television, saying he can’t bear to watch his daughters playing against each other.
Like her sister, Serena Williams hasn’t dropped a set so far. And, like Venus, she relied on her serve to pull her through when she needed it most.
“I didn’t want to go three sets,” she said. “I could have. I was ready to go three sets, but I felt like I didn’t want to. I just wanted to close it. I just hit some big serves.”
Dementieva, a Russian playing in her first Wimbledon semifinal, looked nervous and was completely overmatched in the first set by Venus Williams’ sheer power and pace but settled down and made it competitive in the second. She then faded badly in the tie breaker and committed repeated unforced errors.
Bob and Mike Bryan never lost serve once during the Wimbledon doubles tournament, and yet they won’t win the title.
The top-ranked twins from the U.S. lost 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (11-9) in the semifinals Thursday to Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe.
The Bryans were trying for a fourth consecutive men’s doubles final at the All England Club.
Wimbledon is not over for the Bryans — they could meet in Sunday’s mixed doubles final. Bob teamed with Samantha Stosur to beat Andy Ram and Nathalie Dechy 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals Thursday, while Mike paired with Katarina Srebotnik and defeated Ullyett and Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
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