Perhaps Serena realised the magnitude of her folly in the second set itself. Her backhand appeared to be heading for the line, but eventually chose to settle for a spot just wide. She let out a scream of frustration, heard over the raucous crowd. She was down 4-2, and Venus was on a comeback trail.Fate, in collaboration with her groundstrokes, though, decided to give Serena another chance. She stood firm in front of the barrage her elder sister directed her way, including a match point she faced on her own serve. Serena soaked in everything Venus threw at her, and sent it back with compliments, making her way to the final of the Bangalore Open, where she will be up against Swiss fourth seed Patty Schnyder. The elder Williams may have been given a headstart on life, but today, it was her younger sister who snuck in and grabbed the lead in their head-to-head standings. Previously tied at 7-7, Serena’s 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4) victory in the semi-finals here puts her ahead, till the next encounter at least. “It was a very hard-fought win, I’ll have to refocus really fast for the final. Both of us are not playing our best tennis, but to be in a final even when I’m not at my best is awesome. I should have taken the first match point, but this was a good win,” said Serena after her victory.Venus, though, asserted she did all she could. “I felt I played really well, and its hard to win every match. “She always plays very tough, and each time is very challenging. But there is a lot more tennis left to play, and I hope we can play better and better,” she said. Serena was always a step ahead of the second seed in this match, but Venus was in no mood to give up without a fight. She broke Serena when she was serving for the match, and looked dangerously close to pulling it off as the encounter headed to a tie-break. The third seed, however, managed to recover just in time.Patty Schnyder seems to have got her wish. She ended Yan Zi’s run comfortably in the first semi-final of the day, and with her 6-4, 6-3 victory over the Chinese player, she expressed a preference for the younger Williams in the final. “I have beaten her before, and have never beaten Venus, so I would like to play Serena,” she said, before the Williams-Williams match began.Serena leads their head-to-head record 6-3, but Schnyder emerged the victor in their last two meetings. The permutations and combinations may be endless, but statistics will cease to matter as the Bangalore crown awaits its new owner.
