Venus and Serena set up final date

By Pritha Sarkar

LONDON (Reuters) - The Williams name will once again be engraved on the Wimbledon trophy in 2008.

The sporting world's most intriguing sibling rivalry will be revived this weekend after Venus and Serena Williams surged into the All England Club final on Thursday.

Champion Venus was the first to book her final date by bullying Elena Dementieva into a 6-1 7-6 submission while Serena survived two rain disruptions and some plucky play from new Wimbledon darling Zheng Jie before she carved out a 6-2 7-6 win.

Russian Dementieva and China's Zheng valiantly tried to gatecrash the Williams party on Centre Court but in the end wilted under a barrage of fierce thunderbolts.

Fifth seed Dementieva started as underdog despite being the highest ranked survivor in the women's draw.

It did not take long to see why. Venus blew the Russian off court in the opening set as her flaky serve started to crumble.

In fact, the glaring sun beating down on court was turning out to be more of an obstacle for Venus who squinted as she smashed away an overhead to seal the first set.

A muttering and squealing Dementieva provided more entertainment and stiffer resistance in the second but it all amounted to nothing when she surrendered her title hopes by scooping a forehand into the net to lose the tiebreak 7-3.

VENUS MESSAGE

As soon as a beaming Venus skipped off court, the seventh seed had a message for her sister.

"I'm dying for S. Williams to get through." said Venus, who is chasing a fifth title at the citadel of grasscourt tennis.

"This is my seventh final here and I'm looking forward to playing Serena in our third final and I'm rooting her on."

Serena appeared to have heeded her sister's call when she began her contest against Zheng, the first Chinese player to reach the semis of a grand slam, by blasting serves down and pounding groundstrokes into the corners.

Just as it looked like the sixth seed would flatten her opponent, Serena's customized white rain coat came in handy when a short shower burst sent the players scurrying into the locker room with the American leading 5-2 in the opening set.

On resumption, Zheng, the first wildcard to reach the women's semi-finals at Wimbledon, was again left to dodge the missiles as Serena quickly pocketed the first set.