Serena, Venus set stage for historic sister act

Venus and Serena Williams both overpowered their semifinal opponents on Friday to set up an historic family final in the US Open women's singles.

Serena Williams brushed aside top-seeded world number one Martina Hingis 6-3. 6-2 and then big sister Venus disposed of Australian and French Open champion Jennifer Capriati 6-4, 6-2 to make Saturday night's Grand Slam final a family affair.

"It's sweet. It's sweet. It's really nice," said 21-year-old defending champion Venus.

"It will be great history," said 19-year-old Serena.

Saturday's final, will be the first Grand Slam final contested by sisters since Maud Watson beat Lilian Watson 117 years ago in the first Wimbledon women's final in 1884.

The men's semifinals will be played on Saturday afternoon.

Fourth-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt meets seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, followed by third-seeded defending champion Marat Safin of Russia against 10th seed Pete Sampras in a rematch of last year's final.

Women's day at the National Tennis Center provided a Williams family dream come true on Friday.

The semifinal victories ensured the Williams clan of a third successive Open title as Serena won the crown in 1999 before Venus raised the trophy in triumph in 2000.

The sisters advanced in different fashion as Serena sailed against the Swiss number one, while Venus had a hard-hitting fight on her hands against Capriati.

The fourth-seeded Venus had to battle back from 4-1 down in the first set, but the Wimbledon champion was up to the task.

Venus, who squandered four break points against second seed Capriati in the opening game and two more in the fifth, finally broke through to put the set back on serve in the seventh game at 4-3 with a backhand drive down the line.

Capriati saved three more break points from 0-40 in the ninth game but caved in under the Williams assault by netting a backhand pass and then netting a forehand to trail 5-4.

Last Stand

Capriati, who could have taken over as world number one with a victory, made one last stand against Venus in a titanic 10th game that went to 22 points. Capriati saved three set points but failed to cash in any of five break points before two errors ended the game and set in Venus's favour.

That seemed to take the life out of Capriati, who played a defensive game against Venus.

"I think she cut down a little bit on the mistakes, but I definitely ran out of gas there a little bit," said Capriati, who like her opponent had not lost a single set in her run to the semifinals.

"It was the first match I had to run down a lot of balls, and had to work so much on every point."

The first set took 52 minutes for Venus to capture, one minute longer than Serena needed to dismiss the Swiss as the younger Williams overwhelmed Hingis with an awesome display from the service line.

The 10th-seeded Serena smacked 10 aces without a single double fault, and landed every first serve in the second set as she dropped just one point on serve in a stunning rout.

Serena avenged three successive losses to Hingis in stunning style, winning 61 points against 33 in a contest that at times resembled an early round Grand Slam mismatch.

"She just played really well," said a humbled Hingis. "Sometimes, mentally, I was just too passive. She just played well, played smart, waited for her chances and hit winners."

One-sided

Serena blasted 40 winners to just five from Hingis in a one-sided semifinal that made up for a quarter-finals loss to 20-year-old Hingis in their last match at the Australian Open.

Early on, Hingis tried to induce errors by taking pace off her groundstrokes, but instead the American stepped in and cracked winners off both wings to lead the first set 5-1.

The Swiss, who has not won a Grand Slam in more than two years since claiming the 1999 Australian Open title, switched gears and started hitting out as she pulled to within 5-3.

But Serena finished off the threat and the set with three aces and a service winner in a love game. She maintained a virtuoso level in the second set, ending the match with a service winner, two aces and another service winner.

"It was all in the placement," Hingis said about her opponent's invincible serve. "I couldn't read her serve. I couldn't tell if she was going forehand or backhand. She was hitting the lines and the corners. I had trouble reaching it."

The Williams sisters are best of friends, but they left no doubt that they both dearly wanted to win the crown.

"I'll still try to take the title home and she will too," said Venus, before adding a little dig. "It's been two years for her since she's won."

Venus Lead

Venus leads her career series against Serena 4-2, including a semifinal default by Venus this year at Indian Wells.

The Williams sisters have met twice previously in Grand Slams with Venus prevailing in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open and in the semifinals last year at Wimbledon.

The Grand Slam form sheet also might favour Venus. In Grand Slam history, sisters have played each other in nine matches and the oldest sibling has won every time.

Though their previous matches against one another have failed to produce great tennis, Serena said they were both highly motivated to win the final.

"I'm just so focussed right now. I really, really want this tournament," said Serena. "I'm basically ready to do anything to get it.

"And Venus, she's really focused also.

"I won't have any problem because this is the U.S. Open," Serena said. "If you ever notice, the winner gets $850,000. So I won't have any problem going out there and trying to win."