Defending champion Venus Williams battled past Lindsay Davenport 6-2 6-7 6-1 in a see-saw Wimbledon semi-final this afternoon to reach a title decider against Belgian teenager Justine Henin.
Williams raced to a 4-1 lead in the first set, making few errors and dominating with her power and aggression, The second seed won it in 26 minutes on her fourth set point against a sluggish Davenport.
She led 4-1 in the second but third seed Davenport suddenly raised her game and began to put pressure on her opponent for the first time and clawed her way back to 4-4.
A stream of classy backhands gave Williams her first match point leading 5-4 but she netted a service return. Williams's forehand began to go off the rails and Davenport raced through the tiebreak to win it on a double fault from the champion.
But Davenport again inexplicably lost her form. She failed to win a service game in the third set, went 5-1 down and lost when Williams dinked a volley past her at the net on her second match point.
Earlier Henin shattered the Grand Slam hopes of American Jennifer Capriati when the Belgian teenager staged a magnificent recovery to win 2-6 6-4 6-2.
