Serena aims to guard against complacency in final

Serena Williams admits over-confidence could be the biggest obstacle to her bid to win a fourth Wimbledon singles title in today's final against Vera Zvonareva.

Williams has swept to the final in such dominant fashion that few outside of Zvonareva's family and friends expect anything other than a convincing victory for the defending champion.

The American top seed has yet to drop a set at this year's Championships and has sent down a total of 80 aces as she bludgeoned opponents into submission with her ferocious serve.

Even those impressive statistics don't do justice to the way Serena has advanced to her sixth Wimbledon singles final.

She began the tournament by winning the first set of each of her first three matches without dropping a set.

Then, when the going got tougher in the second week, she was able to raise her game at the crucial moment to stay on top of fiesty rivals like Petra Kvitova, who took her to a tie-break in Thursday's semi-final.

Now she just has to defeat Russian 21st seed Zvonareva, who will be playing in her first Grand Slam final, to retain the Venus Rosewater dish.

"On paper it looks like I should win. But Vera, I've played her several times; she's beaten some good people," Serena said.

"Her last two matches she's been down a set, so she's obviously a fighter. I've been in this situation before where I did put pressure on myself and actually ended up losing.

"I learned from that hopefully. I just don't want to put too much pressure on myself."

For the last two years, the women's final has been an all-Williams affair, but Venus is absent this time.

While Serena undoubtedly has more weapons at her disposal than Zvonareva, the Russian has demonstrated her fighting spirit by coming from a set down to defeat Kim Clijsters and then Tsvetana Pironkova in her last two matches.

Zvonareva, 25, is well aware the bookmakers give her virtually no chance of winning her first Grand Slam this week, but she is determined to push Serena harder than anyone has managed so far.

"Serena is great player and the defending champion but I always believe in myself," Zvonareva said.