Wimbledon: Women's Semifinals

The final two have now been determined on the women's side for Saturday's final, pitting one of the more decorated women ever against a first time finalist known to choke in the past.

Serena Williams vs. Vera Zvonareva

The world no. 1 goes for her 13th slam title while the Russian no. 5 (coming in, will be no. 2 going forward) is playing in her first slam final.  I would be surprised if Serena didn't win but the way Vera finished strong against Clijsters and Pironkova after dropping the first set leaves a little room for doubt.  Serena is 12-3 in slam finals, including a 3-2 record at Wimbledon.  Her losses came to Venus at the '01 US Open and '08 Wimbledon and to Sharapova at the '04 Wimbledon.  Zvonareva will begin compiling a slam final record on Saturday.

Serena leads the head-to-head record 5-1 though they have never met on grass.  Here are the results:

'02 French Open (clay) R16:  Serena wins 4-6, 6-0, 6-1
'04 Los Angeles (hard) QF:  Serena wins 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
'04 Beijing (hard) SF:  Serena wins 6-2, 6-3
'06 Cincinatti (hard) SF:  Vera wins 6-2, 6-3
'07 US Open (hard) R32:  Serena wins 6-4, 7-6
'08 Charleston (clay) F:  Serena wins 6-4, 3-6, 6-3

The record in sets is better, 10-5 to Serena, Serena is 3-1 on hard courts and 2-0 on clay.  Serena has won all 3 matches that have gone three sets.

The semifinal scores were:

1) Serena Williams (USA) def. Petra Kvitova 7-6, 6-2
21) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) def. Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2

Serena now leads the virtual rankings by over 2,000 points, meaning she'll be no. 1 for awhile.  Vera is back into the top 10, currently at #9.  Radwanska drops out of the top 10.
Props go to Kvitova and Pironkova for their historic runs to semis.  Wimbledon had only 2 unseeded semifinalists in the open era, and Pironkova is the first Bulgarian to reach a slam final.  Both also acquitted themselves nicely in the semis but just couldn't pull the match.

Venus Williams was the defending finalist from 2009, and was knocked out in the quarters.