Wimbledon women’s semifinal: Serena Williams vs. Elena Dementieva
The other half of the American vs. Russian semifinal at Wimbledon on Thursday is No. 2 seed Serena Williams against No. 4 Elena Dementieva.
Serena Williams, a finalist at Wimbledon last year, has opened as the WagerWeb.com favorite.
Dementieva reached her second successive Wimbledon semifinal with an easy victory over Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, 6–2, 6–2. Serena, a two-time Wimbledon champion, beat world No. 8 Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-3 in an impressive display. Williams, the winner of more grand slam titles than any active player, has lost just 25 games at this tournament.
Serena beat Dementieva six years ago at Wimbledon on the way to her second Wimbledon title. Williams remarked that she has no memory of that match at all, but has plenty of other reference points.
“I’ve played her a lot in the last 12 months so I definitely know Elena’s game,” she said. “She gets a lot of balls back and she’s a power player.”
These two have met eight times overall, with Serena winning five of those. They have met three times this year, with Dementieva winning two of the three. In fact, the Russian has won four of the past five against Serena, with all those coming on hard courts. That one Wimbledon match in 2003 is the only time they have met on grass.
Dementieva has yet to lose a set at Wimbledon this year and has won 60.3% of all the points she has played in. She has only once given her opponent four games and that was in the first set of the first round.
“I think it was good to win all these matches in two sets and save some energy for the big moment, a semifinal,”she said. “But I’m sure it’s going to be a difficult match. It’s going to be a fight for every point, every game.”
Dementieva has never won a major but did win the Olympic gold medal last year in Beijing.
Serena is 29-2 in the last five Grand Slams and believes she’s better now than when she won the Serena Slam in 2002-03.
“I think my game is in a good state. I am definitely satisfied,” she said. “I think I could still serve a little better and return a little better and just stay in the match the whole way.”
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