(Sports Network) - Reigning champion Venus Williams reached her seventh career Wimbledon final on Thursday by straight-setting Russian Elena Dementieva on the grass at Wimbledon. The seventh-seeded Venus handled the fifth-seeded Dementieva 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) on Centre Court at the All England Club. The powerful American's opponent in Saturday's final will either be her sixth-seeded sister Serena or Chinese wild card Jie Zheng.

This match was never in doubt, as Venus pounced on Dementieva for a 4-0 lead in the first set, and wound up winning eight of the first nine games for a commanding 6-1, 2-0 advantage. She converted on her first match point when Dementieva netted one final weak forehand.

The former top-ranked Venus moved on in 1 hour, 42 minutes, as she broke Dementieva's suspect serve four times while only being broken once.

Venus is now 6-2 lifetime against Dementieva, including a victory in the gold medal match at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

The 26-year-old Dementieva is a two-time major runner-up and was appearing in her first-ever Wimbledon semifinal and her fifth career major semi (2-3).

The six-time Grand Slam champion Venus is now 7-0 in her Wimbledon semis and 57-7 overall in 12 trips to the All England Club. She defeated France's Marion Bartoli in last year's finale and also titled here in 2000, 2001 and 2005.

The 28-year-old Venus is 6-6 in her career Grand Slam finals, including 4-2 at Wimbledon. She lost to her younger sister in back-to-back finals here in 2002 and 2003.

Venus owns 36 titles in 58 career finals and will perform in her first final of 2008 here on Saturday.







Copyright 2008 The Sports Network
All rights reserved