Venus crushes top seed

Williams: Easy win

It's a dream come to true to be here again and have the opportunity to hold the plate up.

Venus Williams
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Venus Williams waltzed into the Wimbledon final after dismantling world number one Dinara Safina in straight sets on Thursday.

Safina may have been the top seed at the All England Club this year, but there was no doubting who remains the queen of grass as defending champion Williams blitzed her Russian opponent off the court, recording a 6-1 6-0 victory in just 51 minutes.

"Oh my God, this is my eighth final, and it's a dream come to true to be here again and have the opportunity to hold the plate up," said Venus.

"A fourth final - it's so exciting. It was so hard before my match to watch all that drama," Venus said, referring to Serena's semifinal as she clawed past Elena Dementieva 6-7 (7/4) 7-5 8-6.

"It was so difficult. But the hardest part is next to come, to play Serena Williams."

The pundits warned Safina that she must dramatically improve her serve against the number three seed if she were to have any chance of making a first final appearance at SW19.

But the writing was on the wall as early as the opening game as the 23-year-old was broken to love before Williams raced to a 5-0 lead.

Safina managed to get a game on the board, which turned out to be her only one of the entire match, but that did not halt her 29-year-old opponent as she wrapped up the first set in 27 minutes.

Humiliation

If Safina was to get back into this match, it was crucial that she got off to a good start in the second set - so it was not the most ideal of situations when the Russian was broken to love again after dumping a forehand into the net.

Her mind appeared scrambled with the humiliation which was befalling her and Williams raced into a 4-0 lead, her opponent winning just four points in the process.

Unforced errors sprayed from Safina's racquet as she began to panic, rushing her forehands, and a double fault in the fifth game handed Williams another break of serve.

And Williams, who hit 16 winners and incredibly just one unforced error, made no mistake of capitalising on her opponent's frailty and she completed the rout on her first match point after Safina dumped yet another groundstroke into the net.

"She's too good on grass," reflected Safina. "It's not my favourite surface and it is her favourite.

"It was disappointing but I have to accept it. Reaching the semi this year means maybe I can change my mentality on grass and come back with more expectations. She gave me a pretty good lesson but it would be different on clay."

Williams will face younger sister, Serena, in the Saturday's final after she saw off Elena Dementieva in the other semi-final.

It is a repeat of the 2002, 2003 and 2008 finals at SW19 - Serena winning the first two while Venus triumphed 12 months ago.