Venus Williams reached her seventh Wimbledon final in fine style, beating Elena Dementieva 6-1 7-6 (7-3).

Dementieva was seeded higher than her opponent but appeared overawed on Centre Court and struggled desperately on serve in the first set.

But from 2-0 down in the second set, the Russian fought her way back into contention with some ferocious hitting.

Defending champion Williams was too strong in the tie-break though and goes on to face sister Serena or Zheng Jie.

"It's so exciting to be in the semi-finals," Venus told BBC Sport.

"She's a very similar player to me so I knew I had to do what we both do a little bit better.

"I had the early break and I was a little disappointed I didn't hold onto that but what's important is I managed to hold my own serve from then on."

Venus has won the title four times, but lost to her sister in the other two finals she has reached.

"I'm dying for Serena to get through. I'm looking forward to playing her and I'm looking forward to rooting her on," she added.

Venus's serve was particularly impressive and Dementieva could only win 10 points when the American landed her first serve.

The seventh seed made a near-perfect start, racing to a 4-0 lead, and Dementieva had to save two break points before she held serve for the first time.

But Williams wrapped up the set in 38 minutes and when she took a 2-0 lead in the second, a hushed crowd sensed a humiliation.

But Dementieva, 26, finally found the range with her groundstrokes and engaged in some brutal rallies with the defending champion.

The Russian, roared on by the crowd, broke back through an extremely fortunate net cord and stayed with Williams until the tie-break.

But the unforced errors returned to haunt her and Williams sealed victory in one hour and 42 minutes.

(BBC)

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