Venus Beats Serena at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) â€” Advantage, big sister. <br><br>Venus Williams won the battle for family supremacy Thursday, beating kid sister Serena 6-2, 7-6 (3) to reach her first Wimbledon final. <br><br>Williams

Thursday, July 6th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) â€” Advantage, big sister.

Venus Williams won the battle for family supremacy Thursday, beating kid sister Serena 6-2, 7-6 (3) to reach her first Wimbledon final.

Williams will face defending champion Lindsay Davenport in Saturday's all-American championship match. Davenport swept unseeded 17-year-old Jelena Dokic of Australia 6-4, 6-2 in just 51 minutes.

It will be the first women's final between two Americans since 1990, when Martina Navratilova beat Zina Garrison for her record-breaking ninth singles title.

The Williams vs. Williams encounter was one of the most eagerly anticipated Wimbledon matches in recent years, and the first time since 1884 that two sisters had played each other so late in a Grand Slam tournament.

But it failed to live up to expectations, turning into a straight-sets affair dominated by errors rather than spectacular winners.

The fifth-seeded Venus appeared much less tentative than No. 8 Serena, who made repeated mistakes off her forehand, lost the last six points of the tiebreaker and finished the match with her sixth double fault. She cried on the sideline.

After Serena plunked her second serve into the net on match point, Venus showed no sign of happiness. With a glum expression on her face, she walked slowly to the net, shook hands with Serena, then put her right arm around her sister's shoulder.

As the sisters walked off court, Venus gave a brief, halfhearted wave to the crowd. They left without doing the traditional curtsy to the Royal Box.