Serena Williams demonstrated that having a baby had not robbed her of any of her phenomenal tennis skills when she became the first mother in 38 years to reach the Wimbledon final, with a 6-2, 6-4 demolition of Germany's Julia Goerges on Thursday.
Serena will face German World No 10 Angelique Kerber in the final on Saturday, a repeat of the 2016 showpiece won by the American. Kerber crushed former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-3 in 67 minutes.
Goerges had come into her first Grand Slam semifinal having belted more winners (199), more aces (44) and more unreturned serves (113) than anyone else in the women's draw but those statistics counted for little when she came up against an opponent who is in hot pursuit of a record-equalling 24th major.
The 13th seed had never taken a set off Williams in three previous meetings and any hopes she might have harboured of setting up an all-German final were dashed in 70 unforgiving minutes.
In each set Goerges was broken in the sixth game and she simply did not have the firepower or belief to stop the seven-times champion from surging to a 20th successive win on the hallowed turf.
Williams was back giving the crowd a one-arm raised victory twirl after reaching a 10th Wimbledon final.
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