Venus Williams fell painfully short of a ninth Wimbledon final appearance as she failed to fire in a straight-sets semi-final defeat to Angelique Kerber, yesterday.

After sister Serena coasted to victory over Elena Vesnina in just 49 minutes, it fell to Venus to make it a fifth all-Williams family final at the All England Club.

Yet she was off her game and Kerber did enough, without needing to be at her best, to take a 6-4 6-4 victory in an hour and 13 minutes.

Left-hander Kerber sealed victory with a sizzling cross-court forehand pass, and will be bidding to become Germany’s first women’s singles champion at Wimbledon since Steffi Graf took her seventh title in 1996.

Looking ahead to her first appearance in the Wimbledon trophy match, the 28-year-old fourth seed said: “It’s just amazing.

“To beat Venus in the semi-finals ... it’s always a tough match against her. She’s a champion and she’s won so many times here.

“That’s why I’m really happy about my game and my first final here at Wimbledon.”

Kerber, yet to drop a set in the tournament, added on BBC One: “I think right now I have a lot of experience from my last few years on tour and I’m enjoying my tennis.

“I’m just happy to be in my second grand slam final.”

Kerber beat Serena Williams in the final of the Australian Open in January, and tomorrow’s re-match looks appealing.

“It’s a completely new tournament,” Kerber said.

“I will just try to go out there with a lot of confidence, trying to play my best tennis and trying to give everything I can in the final.”

Earlier, a Champagne cork popped somewhere on Centre Court four games into Serena’s semi-final and while it was a tad premature, her 6-2 6-0 thrashing of Vesnina suggested she could celebrating something special come tomorrow.

The top-seeded American will be taking nothing for granted, having seen her bid to match Graf’s modern era record of grand slam titles stuck one short on 21 for a year, but it was a menacing show of strength, albeit against an overawed opponent.

She dropped only three points on serve in an embarrassingly one-sided 49 minutes – crunching down one 123mph delivery that topped the women’s speed charts at this year’s tournament.

From the moment the 34-year-old broke serve in the opening game the writing was on the wall for a leaden-footed Vesnina appearing in her first grand slam semi-final.

Latecomers

By the time the latecomers took their seats two games later Serena was 3-0 ahead and her place in a ninth Wimbledon title already looked in the bag.

Vesnina held serve twice in the opening set, prompting sympathetic applause, but the world number 50 was swept aside in the second set, winning only five points, as Serena marched to singles victory number 85 at the All England Club.

“It’s weird, I can’t believe I’m in the finals again,” she said. “I’m zero and two for (grand slam finals) this year so I want to get at least one.”

Vesnina, the first unseeded woman to reach the semis at Wimbledon since Sabine Lisicki in 2011, had served the second-most aces, after Serena, coming in to the match. She managed four yesterday, but it was futile.

“Let’s be real, I’m guessing it’s a combination of fatigue and her freezing. Her legs looked like they weighed 200 pounds each,” was commentator John McEnroe’s blunt assessment.

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