Serena Williams is into her seventh career Wimbledon final and will have a chance to win her fifth career title at the All England Club on Saturday. She was at her best on Thursday, defeating Victoria Azarenka in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).
Azarenka was appearing in her second career Wimbledon semifinal, and once again was unable to advance to a final on grass. She has just one grass court title in her career, which came in her only career final appearance on grass in any tournament.
Williams and Azarenka went blow-for-blow for most of the first set before Williams put together a great game on Azarenka's final service game of the set. Neither player had a break point until Williams won two, then broke at 5-3 in the first set. She held serve in the next game, winning the first set 6-3.
It appeared that Williams was going to cruise to an easy win when she broke Azarenka early in the second set, but Azarenka surprisingly broke back to get the match back on serve at 3-3. Both players held serve until the end of the set, forcing a tiebreak.
Williams' serve was spectacular all match, and she brought her best in the tiebreak. Azarenka saved one match point on her own serve, but gave away another on Williams' serve. She hit a Wimbledon record-breaking 24th ace to win the tiebreak 8-6, breaking her own record of 23 aces in a match at Wimbledon with her final serve of the match.
A full Wimbledon 2012 scoreboard can be found at SI.com.
For more throughout Wimbledon, visit SB Nation's tennis hub.
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