Fourth seed, Angelique Kerber, on Thursday, defeated Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4, to end any hopes of an all-Williams final at the 2016 Wimbledon Championship.
In contrast, her sister, Serena needed just 48 minutes to overwhelm Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-0 in what felt like a training session.
So now, instead of an all-Williams final on Saturday, it will be Kerber against No. 1 Serena in a rematch of the Australian Open final won by the German in January.
The pair had met six times at Wimbledon and 27 in all competitions with the most recent coming in the quarter-finals of the US Open back in September, which Serena won.
Venus was in her best Grand Slam run in a half-dozen years but ended one victory short of what would have been yet another Wimbledon title match against her sister Serena.
Unable to replicate the sort of turn-back-time performance that carried her to the semi-finals at the All England Club, Venus was broken in her first four service games.
The 36-year-old Venus however became the oldest Slam semi finalist since Martina Navratilova was 37 at Wimbledon in 1994.
Since winning her sixth Wimbledon trophy a year ago to raise her career count to 21 majors, Serena has come quite close to tying Steffi Graf with 22, the most in the Open era, which began in 1968 (Margaret Court holds the all-time mark of 24).
But the 34-year-old Serena was surprisingly beaten by Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open semi-finals last September, then by Kerber in Melbourne, and by Garbine Muguruza in the French Open final last month.
“I mean, I think for anyone else in this whole planet, it would be a wonderful accomplishment,” Serena said about reaching her third Grand Slam final of the year.
“For me, it’s about, obviously, holding the trophy and winning, which would make it a better accomplishment for me. For me, it’s not enough. But I think that’s what makes me different. That’s what makes me Serena.”
And now she has given herself yet another chance to catch Graf.
Except rather than a fifth Williams vs. Williams final at Wimbledon, and ninth at a major, it will be Serena vs. Kerber.
The left-handed Kerber dropped to her knees at the baseline and tossed aside her racket after a running cross-court forehand winner capped the 19-stroke exchange that ended her semi-final against Venus.
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