Venus beats out Dementieva to reach 7th final at Wimbledon

(BEIJING, June 3) -- Venus Williams comfortably surpassed Russian fifth seed Elena Dementieva with a 6-1 7-6 (3) victory in today's opening semi-finals to defend her title at Wimbledon. This is the 7th final for the World No. 7.

The match was a hard-fought one for Dementieva who reached the Wimbledon semifinal after making it into two previous Grand Slam finals at the French and US Opens in 2004.

The No. 7 seed Williams was dominant in the first set. The American rushes ahead 40-0 due to a series of unforced errors from the Dementieva, making for a nervy start to the match. A forehand error from the Russian gives the defending champion a triple set point, allowing her to take the first set 6-1.

Dementieva turns the game around in the early games of the second set by making several good holds leading to a tie-break. However, double faults and a forehand error widens Williams' mini-break lead, allowing her to wrap up the set on the first match point.

Williams has enjoyed a run of victories at Wimbledon. In the first round she beat British hopeful Naomi Cavaday 7-6 6-1, and then overtook another British player, Anne Keothavong 7-5 6-2 in round two. She edged out Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-1 7-5 to reach the last 16, before beating Russia's Alisa Kleybanova 6-3 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals. In the last eight she eased past Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-3 6-4.

Williams will next go head-to-head with either the Chinese sensation Zheng Jie or face a possible final match-up with her younger sister Serena.