Williams, however, has been in imperious form in this tournament, and her 6-2, 6-0 win against Elena Vesnina in the final was perhaps her most dominant match of the year, lasting just 48 minutes.
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The Russian, the first unseeded woman to reach the women’s semi-finals since Sabine Lisicki in 2011, never stood a chance against a fired-up Williams who will play Angelique Kerber on Saturday in a repeat of the Australian Open final.
All three denied Williams equalling Steffi Graf’s Open era record 22 major triumphs but the world number one has suggested she is now rid of any anxiety that may have blocked her making history. She said she was too busy taking care of things on her own side of the net to notice if Williams was a little slow or exhausted.
Together with Angelique Kerber’s 6-4 6-4 win over Venus Williams on Thursday, the two Centre Court matches took exactly two hours in total, while Federer and Murray’s victories lasted a combined seven hours and 11 minutes. “That’s the ultimate goal for, I think, both of us”.
“We’ve played so sporadically the last few years”, she said.
Querrey had knocked out No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round on Saturday, but came up short in his bid to become the first American to make it to the semifinals of a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick reached the final four at Wimbledon in 2009.
“I’m just happy to be in my second grand slam final”.
Williams won 53 points in the match, earning an astonishing £9,434 for each one.
“It will be the best feeling, the fans here are just fantastic, so I will really try to play one of my best matches”.
“It’s good that she’s played a final against Serena already on a big stage”, he added. “She liked the Australian Open final, she likes to win, she likes to be the grand slam champion”.
A shoulder injury, combined with the pressure of competing in a first major since her breakthrough and meeting an inspired foe in Kiki Bertens, led to a first-round loss at Roland Garros.
Williams was also asked how she’d like women’s tennis to be perceived when she retires.
Kerber has raced through her six matches at Wimbledon without dropping a set, now has WTA tour-best 34 match wins in 2016 and is guaranteed to rise to a career-high second in the world rankings next week. That set the Wimbledon record for the fastest semifinal. “Just sometimes when you are fighting, sometimes you want something so bad, it can hinder you a little bit”, Williams said. “Not long time to wait”, 29-year-old Vesnina, partnering compatriot Ekaterina Makarova in the quarter-finals against Serena and older sister Venus later, joked. “I will just go out with a lot of confidence and give everything I can in the final”. Williams then broke serve three times in the second.
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Vesnina, a two-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, looked overawed from the outset, losing the first four games.
