WIMBLEDON, England Venus and Serena Williams won in contrasting fashion Thursday to set up their fourth all-sister Wimbledon final and eighth meeting in a Grand Slam title match.
Two-time champion Serena saved a match point and overcame Elena Dementieva 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 in 2 hours, 49 minutes the longest women's semifinal at Wimbledon in at least 40 years. Five-time winner Venus, meanwhile, needed only 51 minutes to demolish Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-0 and reach her eighth Wimbledon final.
"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," Venus said.
The sisters with 17 Grand Slam titles between them -- will face each other Saturday in a Fourth of July final.
"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. "It was so difficult. But the hardest part is next to come, to play Serena Williams."
One Williams or the other has won seven of the past nine championships at the All England Club. Serena beat Venus in the 2002 and '03 finals, and Venus came out on top against her younger sister last year.
"All I know is a Williams is going to win," said the sisters' father, Richard.
Venus is bidding to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win Wimbledon three years in a row.
There have been seven previous all-Williams championship matches at majors, with Serena holding a 5-2 lead. Overall, the sisters are 10-10.
"The more we play, the better it gets," Serena said. "When we play our match on Saturday, you know, it's for everything. This is what we dreamed of when we were growing up in Compton 20-something years ago. This is what we worked for, and this is what we want. Like I wanted her to win today and she wanted me to win today. It's all come down to this."
Venus said she was rooting for Serena to win Thursday but will now do all she can to stop her sister and win her eighth major title.
"I'm happy for her to be in the final, but I have to face her and defeat her," Venus said. "I don't necessarily want her to lose, but for sure I want me to win. I don't want to see myself disappointed. I need to get my titles, too. I'm still the big sister, but I'm still going to play great tennis."
The difference in the two semifinals couldn't have been more striking.
Dementieva said: "The only regret I have, maybe I should take a little bit more risk on match point, should go down the line."
It was Serena's eighth straight win in a Grand Slam semifinal going back to the 2003 French Open. She is 14-2 overall in Grand Slam semifinals.
It was almost too much to handle for father Richard, who watched with other family members and friends in the guest box.
"Serena nearly gave me a heart attack," he said. "Venus played as if she had someplace to go and she was in a major league hurry to get a great dinner."
Serena served 20 aces -- the most for a woman at Wimbledon since 2000 -- and had 45 winners and 28 unforced errors. Dementieva produced 27 winners, 26 errors and eight double-faults.
"That was the best match we ever played against each other," Dementieva said. "It was a real fight from the beginning until the end. I feel like I finally played some good tennis here. It was not easy to fight against her. She's a great champion. She was serving very well today. I wasn't sure if it's Serena or Andy Roddick on the other side."
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