Venus powers through to final

Champion Venus Williams powered through to her seventh Wimbledon final on Thursday with a matter-of-fact 6-1, 7-6 victory over Russian Elena Dementieva.

- Wimbledon 2008

Williams, aiming for her fifth Wimbledon title, launched an array of blistering serves and ferocious groundstrokes at the 26-year-old fifth seed and came up to the net to unleash an aggressive overhead shot across the court to take the first set.

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The Russian, appearing in the last four at Wimbledon for the first time, made more of a contest of it in the second set, managing a rare break of the Williams serve and surprising her 28-year-old opponent with some excellent passing shots.

Seventh seed Williams won the second set tiebreak after a series of errors by Dementieva, sealing it with a powerful forehand. She will face her younger sister for the third time in a Wimbledon final if Serena beats China's Zheng Jie in the day's other semi-final.