Serena takes appointed berth

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Defending champion Serena Williams reached her third successive Wimbledon final after seeing off a challenge from the gritty Petra Kvitova 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 on Thursday.
The world number one was given a tough fight by the unseeded Czech world number 62, but Kvitova began to run out of steam in the second set and could not stop Williams from edging towards a fourth Wimbledon title.

“It definitely wasn’t easy. I worked really hard,” the American top seed said. “I’m happy to still be here, it’s such a blessing to still be in the tournament.”
Williams now faces Russian 21st seed Vera Zvonareva in Saturday’s final.
Russian 21st seed Vera Zvonareva reached the final with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over unseeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.
“Vera is a great player. I’ve had some unbelievable matches against her,” the 28-year-old said.
“It will be tough. I feel like I have nothing to lose going into the final and she doesn’t either, so it will be good.”
“I haven’t quite realised what I’ve done yet,” Zvonareva said. “It is very exciting. It’s one of my dreams to be in the final.
“It was very tough out there, she’s a young player but a very, very tough opponent.
The victory means that at least one of the Williams sisters has advanced to 10 out of 11 straight finals here, with Serena now having made six of them. Williams is chasing a 13th Grand Slam singles title. She won her three at the Wimbledon in 2002, 2003 and 2009.
She is yet to drop a set here this year, though Maria Sharapova and Kvitova at least took her to first set tie-breaks. Kvitova, 20, one of the rare left-handers on the women’s tour, was the youngest player to reach a Grand Slam semis this year.
In their only previous encounter, Williams beat Kvitova in the second round of this year’s Australian Open, winning 6-2, 6-1.
But here, Kvitova was aggressive from the start, showing no sign of being intimidated by facing the champion on Centre Court.
Williams had a break point when Kvitova double-faulted, but the Czech player saw it off to lead 4-2.
Williams served the next game to love then had a break point on the deuce, taking it when Kvitova hit the net, making it 4-4.
The next four games went with serve, forcing a tie-break.
Kvitova made unforced errors to go 4-0 down and though she fought off two set points, Serena sent down an un-returnable serve to seal the set.
In the second, Williams took a 4-2 lead and from thereon there was only one winner after an hour and 33 minutes. — AFP