Serena battles Kerber in Wimbledon final

Serena Williams is once again one victory from a record-equaling 22nd Grand Slam title after powering her way into the Wimbledon final.

In control from start to finish, Williams needed all of 48 minutes to overwhelm Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-0 on Thursday in a semifinal that felt more like a training session.

With a clinical beatdown of Elena Vesnina, Serena Williams was as dominant as we’ve seen her from start to finish this season — and just in time for the Wimbledon final.

“It’s never easy out there,” the No. 1-seeded Williams said in an interview with the BBC after leaving Centre Court.

Williams’ serve was in fine form, reaching 123 mph and producing 11 aces against the 50th-ranked Vesnina, who was participating in her first major semifinal and trying to become the first unseeded woman in the Open era to reach the title match at the All England Club.

Williams will face Angelique Kerber in the final. Kerber, who defeated Serena Williams in the Australian Open final this year, beat Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Unable to replicate the sort of turn-back-time performance that carried her to the semifinals at the All England Club, Venus was broken in her first four service games. The 36-year-old Venus was the oldest Slam semifinalist since Martina Navratilova was 37 at Wimbledon in 1994. Venus is a five-time champion at the grass-court tournament, but she hadn’t made it this far since at Wimbledon since 2009, or at any major since the 2010 U.S. Open.

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