LONDON, England - Serena and Venus Williams advanced to their first Grand Slam final in four years with a hard fought win over Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova on Friday.
Not since their triumph at the All England Club in 2012 - a result they repeated in the Olympic final hosted at the same venue later that summer - have the sisters appeared in a major final together. However, the prospect of another tilt at gold on the horizon has brought the best out of the duo, who saw off No.8 seeds Goerges and Pliskova, 7-6(3), 6-4.
"You know, I think a lot of it is my partner, and when you have a good partner it is easy to relax because if you miss a few shots then you're partner has you, so? that's been part of the equation," Venus said.
Despite falling a break behind in both sets, the Williamses showed their fighting qualities to secure a spot in their 14th major final and sixth at Wimbledon. There they will face No.5 seeds Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-4, 6-2 winners of the first semifinal against Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears.
Venus and Serena Williams reach their 14th Slam doubles final, beating Goerges/Pliskova. Their record in the previous ones: 13-0. #Wimbledon
? Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) 8 July 2016
There will be few secrets between Venus and Shvedova, who are well acquainted having met in the last eight of the singles. "We've never played them before; clearly they're a great team," Venus added. "I've played them both in singles, in fact I played Shvedova in singles this tournament. So it'll be, you know, a familiar sight across the net!
"Yeah, it's nice [to play on the final Saturday]! I came close in the singles, so could have had double duty on Saturday, but with any luck I'll be getting into that cycle a little more in the coming years."
