Venus Williams of the USA reacts after defeating defending champion Maria Sharapova of Russia during their Centre Court women's semi-final match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Thursday 30 June 2005. Williams won 7-6, 6-1.( EPA/KEVIN LAMARQUE)
The semifinal was dramatic - Williams had set points in the opener spaced 25 minutes apart. After putting the first set away, she ran off with the second before Sharapova stiffened with a fighting final game before going down.
"It's a very good win, my goal for this tournament was to play one round at a time," said Williams. "My play has gotten better with each opponent."
Victory catapulted the 25-year-old Williams back towards her former world No. 1 level, when she lifted the Wimbledon trophy in 2000 and 2001 and played finals at the next two editions.
"I'm obviously very sad," said Sharapova, 18. "This tournament means more than any other to me. I guess there will be many more years to come. It's one of those things - you want to win but you can't.
"It was a day where she played a great match. Maybe I didn't do as much as I could have," Sharapova said.
Williams was seeded 14th at this year's 18.5-million-dollar tournament after a miserable run of injury and bad form over recent seasons.
A Williams sister has every Wimbledon final for the past five years, with Venus now doing the honours after Serena crashed out in the first week.
The weather left the other semifinal unfinished, with the hopes of third seed Amelie Mauresmo hanging by a thread.
Top seed Lindsay Davenport, a career-long dominator of the French player, was a whisker away from setting up an all-American final.
She led Mauresmo 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4), 5-3, 0-15 when evening rain returned to halt the proceedings.
Williams stopped the 22-match grass win streak of Sharapova in one hour, 42 minutes to clinch her best Grand Slam performance since losing the 2003 final to her sister Venus.
Sharapova came in without the loss of a set.
"I took it one match at a time," said Williams. "I wasn't sure today if we were even going to get to play."
The American closed out victory in a huge game, missing on a first match point return into an empty court but lifting victory on her second chance.
Sharapova, shrieking as loudly as Williams in the high-decibel contest, frustratingly netted a backhand to end her dream of a repeat title.
"I've always felt I could play at this level, I just gave myself the opportunity to do it," Williams said.
Mauresmo and Davenport battled for 52 minutes in their roller- coaster opening set, with the French player taking it. Davenport shook off sluggish early form to win the second in another breaker before weather intervened.
© dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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