| The Miami Herald WIMBLEDON, England -- It will be an all-Williams Wimbledon final on July 4. Only Hollywood comes up with story lines so perfect. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS Defending champion Venus Williams will go for her sixth Wimbledon title after making a mockery of Dinara Safina's No. 1 seeding with a 6-1, 6-0 semifinal victory that took 51 minutes. For the fourth time this decade, Williams' final opponent will be her younger sister, Serena, who had to scrap and claw to survive the longest women's semifinal in the Open era. Serena seemed as surprised as everyone in the Centre Court audience by the power, precision and emotional stability Elena Dementieva displayed in their match. A second-serve ace coming off Dementieva's racket? The usually-breakable Russian clawing back from an 0-40 hole? A 6-6 deadlock in the third set? This wasn't what two-time Wimbledon champion Williams had in mind. Surely, Williams figured she would strike fear into Dementieva early, win in straight sets and rest up for a potential final against her sister, Venus. Instead, two hours and 48 minutes had gone by, and Williams was still on the court, sweating in the Miami-like heat, digging deep, and finally claiming the marathon victory, 6-7 (7-4), 7-5, 8-6. When Dementieva's final shot sailed wide, Williams' family members leapt to their feet in the player's box and she buried her head in her hands. "It was really, really tough", Williams said as she walked off the court. "Elena's been playing so well, she's won a lot of matches against me in the past, and I was hoping to do a little different against her (Thursday). We gave the crowd a wonderful match." Dementieva was playing her 43rd Grand Slam. She has made two finals -- the French and U.S. Opens in 2004. She made three consecutive semifinals -- 2008 Wimbledon and U.S. Open, and 2009 Australian Open -- but Williams beat her in straight sets down in Melbourne. Serena's older sister, Venus, the defending five-time Wimbledon champion, beat Dementieva in last year's semifinals here, and the Russian was determined not to be kept out again. She swung for the lines, and placed her shots in corners time and time again. Though her unreliable serve still deserted her a times (she had eight double faults), she pulled out a couple of aces at crucial moments. The Russian led 5-4 in the third set and had match point with Williams serving at 30-40, but Williams refused to go down. She raced toward the net and made a gutsy volley to stay alive. Venus was watching Serena's match, and is delighted to have another family party on Centre Court on Saturday. Venus has won 34 consecutive sets at Wimbledon and is trying to become the first woman to win three Wimbledon titles in a row since Steffi Graf did it in 1991-93. "It was so hard before my match watching Serena and all that drama", Venus said. "But the hardest part is coming up, and that is playing Serena Williams." Only once in the past 10 years has there been a Williams-free Wimbledon final, and the sisters have won seven of the past nine titles.
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