Venus will use serve to down Henin

Clare Lovell

Venus Williams will use her enormous serve to quell Belgian upstart Justine Henin in the Wimbledon final, just as she used it to silence Lindsay Davenport on Thursday.

The athletic 21-year-old American, who beat her compatriot 6-2, 6-7, 6-1, thumped down eight aces and won 74 per cent of points on her first serve to reach her second successive Wimbledon final on Saturday.

"Any match if I serve well, it's just so much easier for me. And I think it makes my opponent think a lot about having to break me," the languid defending champion said afterwards.

Williams hardly broke into a sweat on a steamy Centre Court against Davenport, just losing her concentration a little to allow the third seed back into the match in the second set.

"I think she started to play a lot better...then I made a few loose shots," Williams said.

Davenport, champion in 1999 when she beat seven-times winner Steffi Graf, had no answer to the missiles raining on her from the other end of court.

"She was putting a lot of pressure on hitting the ball really hard...Women's tennis is just not used to it coming that hard," Davenport said.

In the fifth game of the first set, Williams, her jewellery glinting in the sun, sent down an ace clocked at 125 mph (200 kph), faster than many of the men.

RECORD

Williams holds the women's record for serving speed set three years ago in Zurich at 127 mph (205 kph), just 22 mph behind the men's record held by Greg Rusedski.

Against Henin, the 19-year-old Belgian who snuffed out Jennifer Capriati's hopes of a third grand slam title in a year, Venus will not slow down.

"It seems that when it comes to the larger matches I'm able to raise the level of my game to a really high degree," she said.

"I don't want to go home without carrying a plate or a trophy or a title or something. So I think that's motivation enough for me.

"I love winning here. Once you win here, it's pretty addictive."

Williams, watched for most of the match by her coach and father Richard, said she had been told by her mother Oracene never to underestimate anyone.

"You have to be playing pretty good tennis to get to the finals of a Wimbledon. That says a lot . So I'm going to be out there hopefully serving like I did today."

Williams, whose sister Serena was knocked out in the quarter-finals by Capriati on Tuesday, said she wanted the title as badly as last year.

"I think I'm playing as well, maybe even better at this point in the semifinal than last year in the semifinals," she said, "So for me that's really exciting."

The only problem for Williams, who learned her craft on the municipal courts of Los Angeles, was her lack of motivation for practising.

"Sometimes it's hard to practice because I get a little bored with practising. It's not always fun.

"I think some of the champions like Steffi Graf or Ivan Lendl that's where they really excelled....Maybe I have to get the same attitude," she said.

And she has already thought a little about how she might spend a leisurely retirement, free from practice, when the time arrives.

"I want to do something that I enjoy, but I don't want to do too much. I don't want to work too hard so...maybe I'll be a couch potato."