Serena and Venus show rolls on

Serena and Venus Williams used their mental toughness and big serves to get them through to another Grand Slam final.

Top-seeded Serena dispatched fourth seed Lindsay Davenport 6-3 7-5 after second-seeded Venus held off 10th seed Amelie Mauresmo 6-3 5-7 6-4 in their semi-finals.

The sisters will square off in tonight’s championship match for the third straight Grand Slam and the fourth time in the past five majors.

Venus defeated her younger sibling in the championship here last year, the first time sisters met in a Grand Slam final since Wimbledon in 1884, when Maud Watson beat Lilian Watson.

Serena countered with victories in the finals at the French Open and Wimbledon.

In addition to unseating Venus as champion at the All-England Club, she also grabbed her sister’s number one ranking.

The winner of today’s prime-time match will be atop next week’s rankings.

“It would be real nice (to regain the number one ranking),” Venus said.

“I’ve played really good for the last couple of years and it seems like I can’t get to that number one ever – or just stay there. So it would be nice to be on top.”

Venus leads the series 5-4 but has lost in all three matches with Serena this year.

“The last few years, it’s all kind of gone my way most of the time,” said Venus, a four-time Grand Slam winner.

Serena was clear in her own goal: “I want to win more than anything.”

“It has been three years since I won the US Open. I like winning here. I was able to win on grass and on the clay. After the Australian, I said last year I need to win the French, Wimbledon and the US Open. It’s all happening, so we’ll see.”

Davenport marvelled at the success of the Williams sisters.

“The most amazing thing in sports, almost,” Davenport said.

“Could you imagine Tiger Woods challenging a sibling to go head-to-head for all the majors? And in an individual sport, no less. They don’t have team-mates to help them along.”

Appearing motivated to reclaim family bragging rights, Venus rolled through the first set against Mauresmo in 34 minutes.

But with a blister opening up on her right hand, she dropped the second set.

“Once I was able to get it wrapped, it was a lot better,” Venus said.

“After a while, I started realising that it was holding me back. I’ve never had my hand wrapped or a blister on my hand before.”

The two-time defending champion broke her French opponent in the fifth game of the decisive set for a 3-2 lead.

But Venus got into trouble when serving for the match, giving Mauresmo triple break point. The 22-year-old American answered with three service bombs clocked around 115 miles per hour to set up match point. Mauresmo hit a forehand wide, sending Williams into her eighth straight final.

“I just didn’t want to let the game go,” said Venus.

“Things hadn’t gone as well as I thought they would go the whole match, and I surely didn’t want to have to get to five-all. So it was nice to have a good service game when I was on the brink of losing it.”

“I just thought I had a pretty good chance to break her on this one,” Mauresmo said after the nearly two-hour match.

“I broke her a few times in the match, but she served unbelievable at this time, and that’s it.”

Venus is seeking to become the first woman to win three straight US Open titles since Chris Evert captured four in a row from 1975-78.

With her sister booked for the final, Serena jumped on Davenport’s first service game and built a 4-1 lead.

She never was threatened on her own serve and closed out the set in 26 minutes.

Davenport began the second set on a better note and hit her first winner, an overhead that made it 30-all.

In the sixth game, Davenport broke for a 4-2 lead. After Davenport held, Serena raised her level of play, taking five straight games, including 11 points in a row at one point.

She broke serve to move within 4-5 and saved three set points on her next service game, each time slamming a service winner.

“I figured, ‘Well ... it’s now or never,”’ Serena said. “I didn’t want to go (to a third set). I just decided to give it my best. I always used to be known for major comebacks.”

Serena won her first career Grand Slam here in 1999 and will seek her sixth title of the year today.

She has yet to drop a set en route to the championship match and has not lost a set in a major since her semi-final against Jennifer Capriati at Roland Garros.

The 20-year-old American is trying to become the first woman to win three majors in one season since Martina Hingis did it in 1997 and the first to claim the final three since Steffi Graf in 1996.