Six-time champion Serena Williams breezed into her ninth Wimbledon final, and a potential match-up with sister Venus, by demolishing unseeded Russian Elena Vesnina in just 48 minutes on Thursday.
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When she next stepped up to the line, she held again.
“I think for anyone else in this whole planet, it would be a wonderful accomplishment (reaching three grand slam finals in a row)”, she said.
She dropped only three points on serve in an embarrassingly one-sided 49 minutes – crunching down one 123mph delivery that topped the women’s speed charts at this year’s tournament.
While Vesnina, a three-times grand slam doubles champion, managed to raise a smile as she walked off, her performance clearly did not impress three-times men’s victor John McEnroe.
“Every point you have to fight for”. “For me, it’s about, obviously, holding the trophy and winning, which would make it a better accomplishment for me”.
Left-handed Kerber had the upper hand in the baseline exchanges against eighth-seeded Venus throughout a topsy-turvy first set.
And Kerber, 28, believes she is in the form of her life going into her meeting with Serena on Saturday.
USA’s Serena Williams in action against Russia’s Elena Vesnina at All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Wimbledon, England, on Thursday, July 7, 2016. But I think that’s what makes me different.
Vesnina, a three-times grand slam doubles victor, had battled through to a first major singles semi but her challenge crumbled quickly as dropped her two opening service games.
“I felt like I had no chance”.
While she knows Williams will be hungry, Kerber – more relaxed after landing her first slam – also suspects the top seed will be vulnerable against an underdog with little to lose.
Vesnina was equally adamant that she and her fellow women players deserve equal rewards. And with the way she played Vesnina, the semifinal that followed – one in which Angelique Kerber finally ended the magical run of Serena’s sister Venus in a disjointed two sets – felt totally superfluous.
Serena Williams is in the Wimbledon final for the ninth time. “I will just try to go out there with a lot of confidence, trying to play my tennis and trying to give everything I can in the final”.
“Serena even told me at the net, see you later. I’m playing my best tennis and have a great team around me”.
Overall, Serena and Venus have won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles. But she’ll be wary of her opponent in the Wimbledon final. “Usually she always behaves like the No. 1 on the court and out of the court”.
She never gave Vesnina a chance to pull off the sort of semifinal stunner that Vinci did last year in NY, stopping Williams from completing the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Graf did it in 1988.
Even if this was Venus Williams’ best Wimbledon in quite a while, it did not end the way she had hoped.
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The 36-year-old had won all eight of her previous Wimbledon semi-finals dating back 16 years to her maiden appearance in the last four when she defeated Serena.
