THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON -- Serena Williams defeated Zheng Jie of China 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Thursday to advance to the Wimbledon final, where she will take on her sister and defending champion Venus Williams.
Venus, a four-time Wimbledon winner, overpowered fifth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva 6-1, 7-6 (3).
The sisters will play on Saturday in the first all-Williams final since 2003 when Serena beat Venus in the championship match for the second year in a row.
"I am dying for S. Williams to get through," Venus said before her sister's match. "This is my seventh final here and I'm looking forward to playing Serena in our third final, and I'm going to be rooting her on."
In men's doubles semifinal play, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia had a 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1, 3-3 lead on Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India when play was suspended due to darkness. In boys junior doubles play, Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver and Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., dropped a 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-3 decision to Mirza Basic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Wu Di of China.
Dementieva, playing in her first Wimbledon semifinal, looked nervous and was completely overmatched in the first set by Williams' sheer power and pace, but settled down and made it competitive in the second set.
After Dementieva knocked a forehand into the net to end the one-hour, 42-minute match, Venus skipped and hopped up and down with joy.
Venus hasn't dropped a set in five matches.
"It's so exciting," she said. "I lost serve once every match. That's pretty impressive, too. I'm looking forward to that final."
Venus' attacking game produced 28 winners and 19 unforced errors. The more defensive Dementieva had 12 winners and 22 errors.
Venus, the biggest server in women's tennis, averaged 190 km/h on first serves and had a fastest serve of 201 km/h. Dementieva, known as one of the weakest servers in the game, averaged only 164 km/h on first serves.
Dementieva was highly animated throughout the match, shrieking at times and spinning around in frustration after errors.
.Venus broke immediately to open the match, saved four break points in the next game and moved to a 4-0 lead before Dementieva finally got on the board after 29 minutes of play. The Russian saved four break points in a game that went to deuce six times, but Venus quickly closed out the set, flying high for a putaway forehand volley smash.
Venus continued a run of four straight games and seemed ready to pull away. But Dementieva raised her level, broke for 2-1 on a forehand net cord and stayed even until 6-6.
Dementieva faded badly in the tiebreaker, however. After a service winner from Venus on the first point, all the next nine points ended in errors. Leading 3-2, Dementieva reeled off three straight forehand errors, a backhand mistake and then another forehand error on match point.
.The men's semifinals are set for Friday as five-time champion Roger Federer of Switzerland and Rafael Nadal of Spain head to a probable third straight Wimbledon championship showdown.
Federer will face a resurgent Marat Safin, a former No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion who used to detest playing at Wimbledon and is down at No. 75 in the ATP rankings. He's the first Russian man to reach the Wimbledon final four in the 40-year history of the Open era.
Nadal will play 94th-ranked Rainer Schuettler of Germany, who defeated Arnaud Clement of France 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (7), 8-6.
.Federer has reached the semifinals for the 17th consecutive time at a Grand Slam event, and is two wins away from becoming the second man in history to lift the Wimbledon trophy six years in a row. He hasn't dropped a set, taking his winning streak at Wimbledon to 39 matches and 64 overall on grass.
"I'll have a chance to win this tournament for the next five or 10 years, you know," the 26-year-old Swiss star said Wednesday. "I think my game's made for grass. My dream is to not only win this year, but many more years to come."
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