Serena will miss sister Venus in final

London, July 2 (bdnews24.com/AFP) - Defending champion Serena Williams said she wishes she was up against her older sister Venus in Saturday's Wimbledon ladies' final rather than Vera Zvonareva.

The American top seed will do battle on Centre Court with the Russian world number 21 in her bid for a fourth Wimbledon singles crown.

But Serena, 28, said she wished she was up against world number two Venus - who she beat in the final for her three titles.

Five-time Wimbledon singles champion Venus, 30, was knocked out in the quarter-finals by unseeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, in a shock result.

"I would feel like I would almost rather play her because at least I know for certain one of us is going to win something and take something home. But now it's a 50-50 chance," Serena said.

"I didn't realise (until now) how good a feeling that was."

But she said she still had the same motivation to fight in the final regardless.

"No matter if Venus had have won and I'd be playing her in the finals or not, I would still feel really into it and really like I want to do this," Serena said.

The Williams sisters - who have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles, including four at the All England Club - were knocked out of the ladies' doubles at the quarter-finals here, meaning Venus will be going home without a Wimbledon title this year.

In Thursday's singles semi-finals, world number one Serena beat the unseeded Czech Petra Kvitova.

In reaching this year's final, Serena has ensured that at least one of the Williams sisters has been in 10 of the last 11 finals at the All England Club.

"It's been a great decade and I feel honoured to be a part of it. Just to have my name mentioned at Wimbledon is amazing," she said, while suggesting that the sisters will keep going for some time yet.

"Hopefully we'll still be around. But there's so many other things that we already have going on that we want to continue to do," she added.

Williams said seeing her name etched on the winners' board once again would still be a thrill.

"It's a really cool feeling because you work so hard to reach that. To see it there is unbelievable.

"Once you have something, you always want it and want to keep it. So it's always something that I desire."

Williams is the clear favourite to win this year's title - but she is refusing to get complacent.

"I never, ever get over-confident," the 12-time Grand Slam singles champion said.

"I did once, maybe, a long time ago. And I think everyone goes through that where they're over-confident. They're up. Then you end up losing the match. So you never do that again."

That said, Williams is planning to prepare for the final by taking it easy and getting stuck into some television comedy drama.

"Well, I'm just going to relax a little bit. I'm going to watch some 'Desperate Housewives' because I have to catch up. So I'm excited about that."

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