ESPN Wimbledon 2009

Updated: July 3, 2009, 1:50 AM ET

Serena in a fistfight until the end

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By Ravi Ubha
Special to ESPN.com
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Rick Reilly: An Ode To Wimbledon

Rick Reilly waxes poetic on all things from the All England ClubTags: Roger Federer, Tommy Haas, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Serena Williams

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Rick Reilly: An Ode To Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England -- No one will call Serena Williams an overly gracious loser. Maybe the bitter stench of defeat makes her the 10-time Grand Slam champion she is.

It was, however, nice to hear her sticking to her tradition and not giving big sister Venus Williams too much credit after last year's Wimbledon final, a pulsating, straight-sets affair that paved the way for an even better encounter two months later at the U.S. Open. She swept aside the family connection.

Serena will get a second straight crack at Venus in the finale of tennis' best-known tournament on Saturday after both, as expected, won their semifinals in steamy London. Mind you, they won in much different fashion.

Serena saved a match point to down determined Elena Dementieva 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 in 2 hours, 49 minutes, the longest women's semifinal at Wimbledon in the Open era. Venus then routed world No. 1 on paper Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-0 in 51 minutes -- one of the, uh, shortest semifinals here. Venus, seeking a third straight title at the All England Club and sixth overall, didn't give poor Safina a chance, contributing just one unforced error and winning her 34th straight set at Wimbledon dating back to 2007. Given the lopsided nature, you'd never have known the top four seeds advanced to the semis at Wimbledon for the first time since 2006, the year a knee injury forced Serena to skip the fortnight and arm injuries led to an early departure for Venus.

Isn't Venus the favorite to win the siblings' 21st meeting, a series that is tied at 10 victories apiece?

"All I know is I've never been able to correctly predict who's going to win," said 1977 Wimbledon winner Virginia Wade. "Even if one sister, Venus, is playing so well, I know Serena is very, very keen to win this match. Both have been playing well. I think Dementieva would have given anyone a hard time."

Serena led Dementieva 5-3 in their head-to-head matches, though the latter won their meeting at last year's Beijing Olympics en route to winning the gold medal. Dementieva served big and picked on Serena's serve.

If Serena hadn't come up with some timely aces -- there were 20 overall, 16 in the final two sets -- cleaned a few lines and found a bit of luck, she would have been disappointed for the second consecutive Grand Slam. The 27-year-old blew a break lead in the third set to mentally fragile Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals of the French Open.

"Serena's match scared the hell out of me," said Richard Williams, the sisters' dad and coach. "It made me nervous and made my heart beat fast. I've never seen Serena play falling back; it seemed like she was in a fistfight falling back. I've seen her play like that before, but not so long. I was wondering what was wrong with Serena. I've never seen Dementieva play that good for that long."

Serena admitted she got tight in Paris. No sign of that Thursday.

Still, Dementieva had the match in her pocket up a set and 4-3, holding a break point. Sprinting furiously along the baseline, Serena crunched a forehand deep that looked more in than out. No out call came, Dementieva challenged and Hawk-Eye revealed the ball landed in by less than a millimeter. The forehand mostly wasn't that effective, and Serena even joked it went on holiday to Hawaii.

"Hopefully, [the forehand will] be back," Serena said.

At 5-5 break point, Dementieva, with an open court, crunched a forehand that clipped the top of the net, veered to the left and seemingly struck the line. Serena wasn't so sure, challenged and was proved correct.

Three aces at key moments in the 11th game helped Serena escape danger and seal the second set.

Here's how Dementieva, up an early break in the third, assessed the serve.

"You know, I wasn't sure if it's Serena or Andy Roddick on the other side, serving 125 [mph] all the time," the world No. 4 said.

Venus conceded 20 points, running Safina ragged on the baseline, and continued to have ample success coming to the net. Venus, 29, made only five approaches, all successful. She didn't need to do much more.

"I don't think you can assess Serena's form, it was so bad," Richard Williams said. "Venus' form, it's the best I've ever seen anyone play that way for two whole sets, and Venus is capable of playing better than she did today, but so is Serena."

In July 2008, Serena called the gentler Venus just another opponent who didn't do anything special and chided herself for not matching the latter's fine performance. Concluding her news conference, when told she didn't look too happy, Serena glumly uttered, "I wonder why."

The verdict meant it was all business. Further evidence came during the 7-5, 6-4 tilt, as Serena on one occasion breached etiquette and hit straight at Venus, who was a sitting duck at the net.

"They've grown up emotionally, and they've now accepted this difficult challenge of playing each other," said ESPN analyst Pam Shriver, a Grand Slam doubles champion and three-time Wimbledon singles semifinalist.

Fans can only hope for another memorable tussle.

Ravi Ubha is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.