Serena Williams beats Maria Sharapova to reach Wimbledon finals

Serena Williams reached an eighth Wimbledon final with a superb 6-2 6-4 victory over Maria Sharapova on Thursday, her 17th win in a row over the Russian.

The five-times champion is now one match away from reinforcing her stranglehold on the women’s game by holding all four grand slam titles at the same time, a feat she will achieve for the second occasion if she beats 20th-seeded Garbine Muguruza in Saturday’s final, but the Spaniard knocked her out of last year’s French Open.

“Yeah, well it’s definitely not an easy match-up, she actually has a win against me and we had a tough match last time we played, so and she’s given me problems in the past. So this time I have to just, you know, go in it, like , have fun and do the best that I can and just try to stay positive and stay focussed,” said Williams.

Sharapova said Serena is always at her best when they meet.

“Yeah, I mean, I always expect her to play the best tennis against myself and a few other elite players and she does always come up with great tennis and you have to be able not just to produce your best tennis, but more and you know, obviously it hasn’t happened for me,” said the Russian.