Wimbledon | All-Williams final is set

WIMBLEDON, England — Standing on the now-patchy grass of Centre Court on Thursday and smiling at her family in the players' box with delight and a bit of relief in her eyes, Serena Williams also was looking at the only woman left who can stop her from winning a third Wimbledon title.

That would be her older sister Venus, who will try to win her fifth Wimbledon singles championship Saturday at the All England Club.

It has been five years since the Williams sisters played each other for a Grand Slam event trophy; five years since Serena beat Venus here in three sets in the 2003 final; five years since they were the dominant duo in women's tennis and the rest of the field was trying in vain to catch up to their power, athleticism and self-belief.

This summer, on the English grass, they have resynchronized their careers, surviving a wild, upset-filled Wimbledon in style to turn the final into a family affair once more.

"I'm definitely surprised," Serena said of the five-year gap. "It's definitely been awhile. Unfortunately, our ranking fell. We've been on the same side of the draw a few times. You know, unfortunately, I lost a lot. But it's good. I mean, this is a new start for us."

Some of the Williams sisters' longtime rivals, such as Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis, retired young. The primary rivals who remain, such as Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic, were ambushed early here.

But Venus, 28 and seeded seventh, and Serena, 26 and seeded sixth, have swept through their draws without dropping a set.

Venus, the defending champion, played first Thursday, serving and moving impressively to defeat fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva, a Russian with great groundstrokes but a suspect serve and nerve, by 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).

Serena went next against the unseeded surprise of the tournament: Zheng Jie, a Chinese baseliner better known until recently for her doubles prowess. She required a wild card from Wimbledon organizers to play in the tournament because her world ranking of 133rd was too low.

They had to work their way through two rain delays: the first one brief, the second one more than an hour. Although Zheng lifted her compact, counterpunching game to a remarkably high level in the second set, she could not quite manage to push Serena into a third set. Serena closed out the victory 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

"I knew there were millions and millions of people watching me back home," said the 24-year-old Zheng, the first Chinese woman to play in a Grand Slam semifinal in singles. "I did really want to win. But overall, I'm quite satisfied with the performance that I had today. But her serve was too big for me, especially on the grass court."

Serena finished with 14 aces and won 87 percent of the points when she put her first serve into play. But Zheng did adjust to the power as the match progressed, prevailing frequently in the extended rallies with her fine defense and terrific two-handed backhand.

She had her lone set point with Serena serving at 5-6, 30-40 in the second set. Serena even provided Zheng with a second serve to return, but Zheng took a big swing with her usually reliable backhand and struck the ball into the net.

Serena swept the next two points and finished off the game with an ace to make the score 6-6.

It was a harbinger of more clutch serving. Williams slammed three more aces in the tiebreaker to take a 5-2 lead. Zheng clawed back to 5-5, but Serena came up with a first-serve winner to make it 6-5. On match point, Zheng double-faulted into the net.

"She definitely pushed me," Serena said. "She played a great game and played like she had nothing to lose, which she didn't."

The mystery now is how the sisters will respond to playing to each other.

"We're going to stop talking to each other now until the final," said Serena, joking.

That would be difficult, considering they are sharing a house here. They are also in today's doubles semifinals. But the singles match, the seventh Grand Slam final between the sisters, is the one that matters most.

Serena leads their head-to-head series 8-7 and has won seven of the last nine meetings.

Venus also won the Wimbledon title in 2000, 2001 and 2005. Serena won in 2002 and 2003.

Meanwhile, Spain's Rafael Nadal, the No. 2 men's seed, was waiting to find out which unseeded, stubble-faced veteran he would face in the semifinals today.

Arnaud Clement of France and Rainer Schuettler of Germany started their quarterfinal Wednesday while Nadal was in the process of overwhelming Andy Murray.

Darkness forced Clement and Schuettler off Court 1 with their match even at one set apiece.

When they returned Thursday, Schuettler, a 32-year-old German ranked 94th, finally prevailed 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-9), 8-6, saving a match point with a forehand winner at 4-5 in the final set of a 5-hour, 12-minute match.