Wimbledon 2004: Serena Given the Fight of Her Life

The Williams Wimbledon dynasty that has ruled the grass for the past four years teetered to the point of crumbling away on Centre Court last night. Serena, the reigning champion, was only two points away from going 7-6, 4-1 down against France's Amélie Mauresmo in an enthralling semi-final which followed an equally absorbing encounter between Maria Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport.

The 17-year-old Russian, playing at this level for the first time, came back from a set down to defeat Davenport, the 1999 champion 2-6, 7-6, 6-1, and Williams similarly, but more expectedly, hauled her way clear of the dark shadows of defeat to beat Mauresmo 6-7, 7-5, 6-4.

If tomorrow's final comes close to matching yesterday's two semis, it will be a marvellous occasion. Williams, with six grand slam titles, is a fighter of renown, and Sharapova, for all her tender years, is fast showing everyone that there is a champion's sliver of ice running through her body.

Both matches received a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd and did a power of good to the women's game which has been beset with injuries to its leading players over the past year.

Mauresmo fought like a champion herself, and in the second set was on the cusp of reaching her second grand slam final, the first having been in Australia in 1999 when she lost to Martina Hingis. Since then the Williamses have won 10 major titles between them and have dominated Wimbledon over the past four years.

Venus Williams, who lost in the second round last week against Croatia's Karolina Sprem, won here in 2000 and 2001, with Serena taking the last two against her older sister. But the aura that has surrounded them both has begun to dim through a combination of injury and the rise of other stars, notably the two Belgians Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters, both of whom missed this Wimbledon.

It had always seemed likely that the grass courts of the All England Club might raise the Williamses' stature again, but when Venus lost so early - she has not won a slam since beating Henin here three years ago - the pressure began to mount on Serena. Having held all four slam titles at the beginning of 2003, the only one she subsequently managed to cling on to was Wimbledon, and the huge leap of joy that immediately followed her win over Mauresmo underscored just how much it meant to her.

There were moments in the final set when she was bent over double as she strove with all her considerable might to repel the Mauresmo challenge. The Frenchwoman, in tears at the end, had been playing wonderfully well in the previous rounds when she had often served and volleyed to telling effect. Against the power of Williams she needed to be a little more circumspect, but her approaches to the net in the first set and a half brought her numerous winners.

Mauresmo, with her wonderful one-handed backhand, is an exciting player to watch, but so often in the past either her nerves or her vulnerable back have let her down. And so often the two have been inextricably linked, as when she pulled out of this year's Australian Open before the quarter-finals.

"This time I was feeling perfectly relaxed but when I was serving at 3-2 in the second set I felt my back go," she said. Immediately the power of her serve dropped and Williams pegged her back to 3-3, having previously trailed 3-1 and 30-0 on her own serve.

Williams had hurled her racket at her feet in frustration as she could sense the semi- final slipping from her grasp. Had Mauresmo's back stayed sound, and had she not had to go off for treatment midway through the second set, she might have recorded a famous victory. But, having levelled the match, Williams' determination increased twentyfold.

It was wonderfully compelling and unpredictable, with the Centre Court crowd enraptured. Williams, whose previous longest match in the tournament had lasted not much more than an hour, probably imagined when she led 3-1 in the first set that she was in for another afternoon of short shrift. But thereafter Mauresmo's confidence grew in direct relationship to her variety of shot and the success of those shots.

Williams was constantly kept off balance, both physically and mentally, by the Frenchwoman's changes of pace and angle, and the champion's forehand was often badly awry. "I got a little down on myself, but I was determined not to give away mytitle without a fight," she said.

If Williams beats Sharapova she will become only the third player in the open era to win three successive Wimbledon titles, the others being Steffi Graff and Martina Navratilova. You would not bet against her.