STANFORD, CA, USA - Venus Williams took one step closer to her third Bank of the West Classic title on Saturday, crushing Elena Dementieva in the first match of Semifinal Saturday at the Premier-level tournament.
Williams, the No.2 seed, was in complete control against the No.3-seeded Dementieva, hitting 17 winners to her opponent's three and breaking serve a total of five times during the 64-minute, 60 61 drubbing, her ninth win in 11 career encounters - and sixth straight - against the tenacious Russian.
"She's a strong striker of the ball, so I was just focusing on winning every point," Williams said. "I felt my best games were the last two. Before those I felt I was making too many errors, but luckily I was still winning the games. I just tried to clean up my game and at the end I felt a lot better."
With her win over Dementieva, Williams improved to 28-8 lifetime at the Bank of the West Classic. She has won the title twice, in 2000 and 2002, and has been a runner-up four times, three times to Lindsay Davenport (1998, 1999, 2004) and once to Kim Clijsters (2005). This will be her seventh final at the event.
The second semifinal saw No.8 seed Marion Bartoli win a see-saw match against Samantha Stosur under the lights at night, 63 16 61. Stosur had won their only previous meeting, also on hardcourts, but this time when it came down to it, Bartoli was the one in charge, winning four games in a row to take total control of the third set en route to the two-hour, four-minute victory.
"I was playing at a pretty high level in the first set, but then in the second set Samantha was playing amazingly. I couldn't do anything," Bartoli said. "I was just waiting for my chances at the beginning of the third set and as soon as I broke her I felt more comfortable. I think she got a little bit tired and then I thought I was fine. I'm really happy to come up with a win tonight."
Bartoli is 4-5 lifetime in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles finals, which includes a 1-1 record this year, finishing runner-up at Brisbane (to Victoria Azarenka) and winning Monterrey. Williams is 41-23, which includes a 2-1 record this year, winning Dubai and Acapulco but runner-up at Wimbledon (to Serena Williams).
The two finalists have only played once before and on the biggest stage imaginable, the Wimbledon final. Two years ago at the All-England Club, Williams beat Bartoli, 64 61, for one of her seven career majors.
"It's going to be a lot of fun, for sure. It's great to play Venus again. I have a lot of good memories from Wimbledon, so I'm really happy to make it through to tomorrow," Bartoli said. "I'll have to serve really well. At Wimbledon the first set was fairly close, and whenever I hit a weaker serve she came in right away. I'll need to take control of the rallies."
