The Williams rivalry still on

But it's a major final. That complicates things.
Then again, at this stage of Venus Williams' career, Wimbledon might be the only major she can still win.
It's the final everyone it seems -- at least, the broadcast media -- has been rooting for. But now that Venus-Serena No. 21 is set, does anyone really care who wins? I'll probably record this one Saturday morning.
The first time they met in a grand slam final (2001 at the U.S. Open) was a big deal. But not anymore.
They may or may not play great tennis. But it's unlikely they'll play a more intriguing or competitive match than Serena and Elena Dementieva played in Thursday morning's semifinals.
How did Dementieva lose that one? She outplayed Serena until the very end of Serena's 6-7, 7-5, 8-6 victory.
Dementieva probably will wake up with nightmares about those easy short sitters she repeatedly overhit or just plain missed when it seemed the match was on the line, among them the two forehands cross court that found the top of the net cord and dropped wide when serving at 5-5 in the second set.

THE LUCK OF SERENA
Serena obviously had luck on her side. Every bounce, every challenge appeared to go her way. Even on the last point, it was a net-cord ball by Serena that resulted in Dementieva hitting the backhand wide that ended the titantic struggle.
Not only did Dementieva outplay Serena, the Russian was quicker, reacted and moved better, and outplayed Serena from the baseline. Dementieva matched Serena shot-for-shot, power-for-power. She just didn't have Serena's luck.
Why is this the only major Venus can win these days? For some odd reason, her long strokes can't miss on Wimbledon's grass, unlike other tournaments where Venus has so much trouble keeping her shots on the court.
But the thing that separates these two sisters is Serena's passion for winning on all surfaces and tenacity. Venus just doesn't seem to want to win as badly, except at Wimbledon.

SAFINA MISSES CRUNCH TIME
Poor Dinara Safina. The Mechanical Miss wants it bad enough, maybe too badly. She just doesn't show up when it's crunch time in the majors.
At this rate, Marat Safin's little sister may never win a major.
Safina badly needs to rethink her game. Maybe she needs to spend more time broadening her game and cutting back on going for points simply to maintain her lofty world ranking.
Winning just one game against Venus must be a little embarrassing for the Russian. And despite how well Venus played in the semifinals, it wasn't all Venus that led to such a one-sided score.
Safina tried to blow Venus off the court. That was Safina's biggest mistake.
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James Beck is the long-time tennis columnist for the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier newspaper. He can be reached at
Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com
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James Beck