WIMBLEDON, England – Standing on the now patchy grass of Centre Court yesterday and smiling at her family in the players' box with delight and a bit of relief in her eyes, Serena Williams also was looking at the only woman left who can stop her from winning a third Wimbledon title.
That would be her older sister Venus, who will try to win her fifth singles title at the All England Club.
It has been five years since the Williamses played each other for a Grand Slam trophy, five years since Serena beat Venus here in straight sets in the 2003 final; five years since the sisters were the dominant duo in their sport and the rest of the field was trying in vain to catch up to their power, athleticism and collective self-belief.
This summer, on the English grass, they have resynchronized their careers, surviving a wild, upset-filled Wimbledon in style to turn tomorrow's final into a family affair once more.
“I'm definitely surprised,” Serena said of the five-year gap. “It's definitely been a while. Unfortunately, our ranking fell. We've been on the same side of the draw a few times. You know, unfortunately I lost a lot. But it's good. I mean, this is a new start for us.”
Some of the Williamses' longtime rivals, such as Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis, retired young. The primary rivals who remain, such as Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic, were ambushed early here.
But Venus, 28 and seeded seventh, and Serena, 26 and seeded sixth, have swept through their draws without dropping a set.
Venus, the defending champion, went first yesterday, serving and moving impressively to defeat fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva, a Russian with great ground strokes but a suspect serve and nerve, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).
Serena went next against the unseeded surprise of the tournament: Zheng Jie, a stocky Chinese baseliner better known until now for her doubles prowess. She required a wild card from Wimbledon organizers to play in the tournament because her ranking of 133 was too low.
The two women of disparate builds and backgrounds had to work their way through two rain delays: the first one brief, the second one more than an hour. Although Zheng lifted her compact, counterpunching game to a remarkably high level in the second set, she could not quite manage to push Serena into a third. Serena closed out the victory 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
“I knew there were millions and millions of people watching me back home,” said Zheng, 24, the first Chinese woman to play in a Grand Slam semifinal in singles. “I did really want to win. But overall, I'm quite satisfied with the performance that I had today. But her serve was too big for me, especially on the grass court.”
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal, the No. 2 men's seed, was waiting to find out which unseeded, stubble-faced veteran he would face in the semifinals today.
Arnaud Clement of France and Rainer Schuettler of Germany started their quarterfinal Wednesday while Nadal was in the process of overwhelming Briton Andy Murray. But darkness forced Clement and Schuettler off Court 1 with their match even at one set apiece.
When they returned yesterday, Schuettler, a 32-year-old German ranked 94th, finally prevailed 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-9), 8-6, saving a match point with a forehand winner at 4-5 in the final set.
The two-day match took 5 hours and 12 minutes, which made it the second-longest in recorded Wimbledon history.
