Angelique Kerber defeats Venus Williams to reach Wimbledon final

13:39, 8 July 2016

LONDON. KAZINFORM - Angelique Kerber is getting a bit of a reputation as a party-pooper, at least where the Williams family is concerned. Having prevented Serena Williams from equalling Steffi Graf's open-era record of 22 grand slams when she won the Australian Open in January, on Thursday she was at it again as she denied the 36-year-old Venus Williams, five times the champion here, a place in the final, 16 years after her first, The Guardian reports.

The 28-year-old German ended Venus's hopes with a confident and impressive 6-4, 6-4 victory which puts her into the final for the first time. A semi-finalist four years ago, Kerber began nervously but grew into her task, too solid and too energetic for a tiring Williams, clinching victory after an hour and 13 minutes.

Williams was in her first grand slam semi-final for six years and her firstWimbledon semi for seven, a remarkable achievement because she lives with Sjögren's syndrome, an auto-immune disease that causes chronic fatigue and muscle soreness. Eight years after her last title here anything seemed possible, but Kerber is made of strong stuff and after a shaky start from both women she pulled away to set up a final against Serena, who demolished Elena Vesnina of Russia. 6-2, 6-0 in the first semi-final.

"It's just amazing, to beat Venus in the semis," Kerber said. "It's always a really tough match against her, she's a champion, so I'm really happy about my first final in Wimbledon.

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