Vesnina won just two games as Williams romped to a 6-2, 6-0 win and set up a final which could see her equal Steffi Graff’s record of 22 Grand Slams.
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The defending champion needed just 48 minutes to move into the final at SW19, the quickest ever Wimbledon semi-final.
Vesnina showed her nerves from the beginning as she did four unforced errors to lose the break in the opening game of the set.
Things got even worse for Vesnina in the second set, the 29-year-old simply unable to deal with the Serena serve, which yielded only three points in the match.
And so as Serena Williams again stands one victory from her record-tying 22nd major title, she will need to beat a woman who already stopped her once this year in that pursuit, Angelique Kerber.
“I’m very happy, I was really focused because I knew we’ve had some tough matches before”, Williams said after the match. Asked if she considered herself one of the greatest female athletes of all time, she said: “I prefer the word “one of the greatest athletes of all time”. For me, it’s not enough. “I feel like it’s been experience and it’s been success, it’s been failure, it’s been everything that created the opportunity for me to be able to be ready in those situations”.
A five-time Wimbledon champion, Venus was in her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2010 U.S. Open. “I feel a little relaxed and more at peace than I may have been in the past”. First up: Canada’s Milos Raonic bids for his first Grand Slam final against Roger Federer beginning at 8 a.m. ET.
Kerber was just eight when Graf lifted her seventh and last Wimbledon singles crown, and said it would be a dream to emulate her by winning at the weekend. She’s a champion and she’s won so many times here. “I know that I have to play my best tennis”.
Fourth-seeded German Kerber, 28, prevented a fifth all-Williams final by beating Serena’s older sister Venus, who was badly out of sorts, 6-4 6-4. But she is still playing with Serena Williams in doubles. The world No 4 kept making Venus hit the extra ball and demonstrated the confidence and mental strength that came with her triumph in Melbourne at the start of the year.
“It’s just wonderful, to beat Venus in the semis”, Kerber, 28, told media members after the match.
Vesnina was equally adamant that she and her fellow women players deserve equal rewards.
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Serena won 28 of 31 points that she served, including the last 17, and compiled a 28-9 edge in total winners. Several times Kerber was virtually on her knees trying to return them. Between the mistakes of her opponent and her powerful serve, Williams was not struggling at all as she held to love for the second time in a row.
