LONDON, July 4: Serena Williams will face big sister Venus for the third time in a Wimbledon final after ending wildcard Zheng Jie’s hopes of becoming the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam final on Thursday.

Serena, who beat Venus in the 2002 and 2003 finals, had to dig deep to beat a battling Zheng 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) and will seek a ninth Grand Slam title when she faces her 28-year-old sister who in turn will be chasing a fifth victory here.

The 26-year-old Serena, 11 kilos heavier and more than 11cm taller than the Chinese, had too much brawn for the world 133, who had made her mark by knocking out top seed Ana Ivanovic in the third round.

Zheng was left to regret a great opportunity to take the semi-final to a decider when she held set point in the 10th game of the second set but Serena was able to call on her powerful smash to rescue herself.

Defending champion Venus had earlier beaten Russian fifth seed Elena Dementieva 6-1, 7-6 (7/3) to reach her seventh singles final.

Serena broke the 24-year-old Zheng in the first and fifth games of the opening set as the American stormed into a 5-2 lead before a 40-minute rain break gave the Chinese time to compose herself.

But it was business as usual on the resumption as Serena served another love game to wrap up the set.

Zheng gave herself a glimmer of hope by breaking Serena to lead 4-2 in the second set, but the American stormed back in the next game and then held to level the set at 4-4.

Another rain delay, this time for 80 minutes, followed at 5-5 and when the players returned Zheng had a set point in the 12th game which Serena saved.

Serena raced to 5-2 ahead in the tiebreak before a gallant Zheng pulled level to 5-5. But the Chinese girl’s nerve deserted her when she double-faulted on match point.

Also on Thursday, Germany’s Rainer Schuettler defeated Frenchman Arnaud Clement in a gruelling battle of the thirty-somethings to reach the semi-finals for the first time in his career.The 32-year-old, the oldest man left in the tournament, won 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (7/9), 8-6 and now faces Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal for a place in Sunday’s final.

The match, which started on Wednesday evening, took five hours 12 minutes to complete, tying the record for the second longest men’s match in history at Wimbledon.

Schuettler, a former world number five and Australian Open runner-up in 2003, is the first German to reach the last four here since Michael Stich in 1997.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Women’s singles:

Semi-finals: 7-Venus Williams (US) bt 5-Elena Dementieva (Russia) 6-1, 7-6 (7-3); 6-Serena Williams (US) bt Zheng Jie (China) 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).

Men’s singles:

Quarter-final: Rainer Schuettler (Germany) bt Arnaud Clement (France) 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-9), 8-6.—AFP