TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS:ELENA DEMENTIEVA said yesterday, for the second time in her career, that the Williams sisters decide who is going to win the match before they play each other in Grand Slam finals.

The Russian made the allegation for the first time back in 2001.

Both Serena and Venus won their semi-final matches yesterday to set up their third Wimbledon final against each other. Dementieva, who was beaten 6-1 7-6 (7-3) by title-holder Venus, was asked how she saw the final between the sisters evolving.

"For sure it's going to be a family decision," she said. "I mean, in the end family is more important to them and they keep a very nice relationship, as I can see."

Dementieva later issued what she said was a clarification, although, because she had also made the allegation before, the statement was seen as a public relations exercise. The clarification simply states the opposite of what she actually said after the match.

"I do not think for one second that matches between Serena and Venus Williams are family decisions," said the statement.

Between them the sisters have now competed in six Grand Slam finals, of which Serena has won five and Venus just one, the US Open in 2001. That bald statistic suggests that if they did decide before the match who was going to win, then the family have been deeply unfair to the older sister. Venus was outraged the suggestion was even made.

"I find the question pretty offensive because I am professional in everything I do on and off the court," she said. "I also have a ton of respect for myself and my family. So any mention of that is extremely disrespectful, for who I am, what I stand for and my family."

At Wimbledon the pair have played in two previous finals, with Serena winning both of those, in 2002 and 2003, her only two wins on Centre Court.

However, when Venus met Dementieva yesterday all you could hear was the soft thud and the smear of a Russian across the metaphorical windscreen. It was no more sophisticated than that, a meeting of two unequal forces and anticlimactic with it.

Williams positively crushed a hesitant, indecisive and error-prone Dementieva 6-1 in the first set before capitalising on further mistakes in the second to win on a tie-break 7-5. The match was peppered with loud piercing screams of despair, especially towards the end as Dementieva's hopes and dreams of reaching a first Wimbledon final vanished almost as quickly as this year's top seeds.

Williams pushed off the match at a hectic pace, earned nine break points on Dementieva's serve and took three of those in just 38 minutes. In that maelstrom of winners, Williams was winning 80 per cent of the points on her first serve, her opponent 48 per cent.

The Russian would have been encouraged by her second set performance as she aggressively came to meet every Williams ball with her own power, which was not inconsiderable. Dementieva, however, didn't have the facility to chip or mix and by the time she had begun to react to William's venom with any authority she was a set down and midway through the second. With Venus the lead serve, it was also a case of Dementieva saving serve each time to stay in the match.

But the lopsided result will have further armed critics of the women's game. That the Dementieva clock could have been cleaned so easily in the first set before chasing and failing to claim a second set will again attract a chorus of disapproval.

At 26 and ranked five in the world such a comprehensive defeat by a player ranked lower and who had no practice on grass before the tournament whatsoever, could be seen as a poor reflection of the mental toughness of the other top players.

"I was just trying to make her play, keep the ball in the game," said Dementieva.

"I mean the more she plays, the more she gets tight. As you could see in the second set, she was really, really tight at the end of the match."

Serena also made a hearty meal of her first set against wild card Jie Zheng on her way to a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) win. The rank outsider was blown away by the American's power in the first set before a rain break sent them scampering for cover.

The forced rest allowed Zheng to gather herself and return more alert and capable than she was in the 6-2 first set and that was reflected by her pouncing on Williams second serve on her first break point and briefly taking a 4-2 lead.

Parity, however, was quickly restored but it was far from one way for Williams and although she pressed Zheng's serve, the Chinese player's aggressive, angled shots and ability to stay in points successfully frustrated the former champion.

Zheng even threatened to send the match into a third set when she earned a set point on Williams' serve at 6-5. But the American again served her way out of trouble before winning a tense tie-break, Zheng finishing disappointingly with a double fault on match point.

"I think she'll be the toughest person I've played," Serena said about the prospect of playing against Venus in tomorrow's final. "We're going to stop talking to each other now until the final."