So once again, the patriarch of the greatest sister act in tennis history is heading home to the United States before the Wimbledon final. That's because the women's singles championship at the All England Club is Venus Williams vs. Serena Williams for the second year in a row and fourth time overall.

The way the sisters won in yesterday's semifinals could hardly have been more different.

"Serena nearly gave me a heart attack," Richard Williams said. "Venus played as if she had some place to go, and she was in a major league hurry to get a great dinner."

Serena went on Centre Court first and came within a point of losing to Beijing Olympics gold medalist Elena Dementieva before grunting and grinding her way to a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 victory that lasted 2 hours, 49 minutes - longer than any Wimbledon women's semifinal or final on record.

"Definitely one of my more dramatic victories," said Serena, who walloped a tournament-high 20 aces. "I felt like I was down pretty much the whole match."

Venus followed and dominated the No. 1-ranked woman, Dinara Safina, in an astonishingly easy 6-1, 6-0 win that took merely 51 minutes and equaled the most lopsided semifinal result here over the last 74 years.

"The score just showed my level of play," the third-seeded Venus said. "I was just dictating on every point."

In tomorrow's final, Venus will be trying to win her sixth Wimbledon and eighth Grand Slam title. Serena will be trying to win her third Wimbledon and 11th Grand Slam title.

It's the eighth all-Williams major final (Serena leads, 5-2) and their 21st meeting on tour (they are tied, 10-all).

"The more we play, the better it gets. When we play our match on Saturday, it's for everything. This is what we dreamed of when we were growing up in Compton, 20-something years ago," Serena said. "This is what we worked for, and this is what we want. Like, I wanted her to win today, and she wanted me to win today."

Venus has won 20 consecutive matches at Wimbledon; if she makes that 21, she will become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win the tournament 3 straight years.

Today, the sisters will wake up at the house they're sharing during the tournament and head to the All England Club to play as a pair in the doubles semifinals, an event they won last year.

Richard Williams said Serena persuaded him to stick around for that doubles match. But he'll get on a plane tomorrow, making sure to remind the pilots not to tell him who wins singles final. How will he find out which daughter is this year's Wimbledon champion?

Not from TV. Or the Internet. Or by checking their Twitter feeds.

No, he'll find out the way he does every time one of his kids claims a Grand Slam championship: He'll read the sign that his neighbors in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., always post on the gate of their house - "Congratulations, Venus!" or "Congratulations, Serena!"

"All I know," he said, "is a Williams is going to win."

Men's semifinals set

Roger Federer - seeking a sixth Wimbledon championship and record 15th Grand Slam title - faces No. 24 Tommy Haas of Germany in the other semifinal.

"By no means is he satisfied, because the whole gig when he hired me is we've got to win a Slam," said Roddick's new coach, Larry Stefanki. "I said, 'That's what I'm here for.' Winning a Slam is what it's all about."

Roddick's Wimbledon win was also the last at any Grand Slam event for an American man, the country's longest drought in the Open era, which began in 1968.

Murray is trying to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. No British man has won any Grand Slam championship since Perry at the U.S. Open later that year.

Federer will be attempting to get to a record seventh consecutive Wimbledon final and record 20th career Grand Slam final. His match against Haas is the Swiss star's 21st Grand Slam semifinal in a row, extending a record he already owned.

By winning the French Open last month, Federer completed a career Grand Slam and tied Pete Sampras with 14 major championships. *