Serena wrests top ranking away from Venus

Serena Williams was on top of the world for the first time on Thursday as she stormed into her first Wimbledon final.

With Venus having hogged the limelight for the past two years by running away with a pair of Wimbledon and U.S. Open crowns, Serena has recently chipped away at her elder sister's stranglehold of the women's game.

Having avenged her loss to Venus at last year's U.S. Open final by walking away with the Roland Garros crown four weeks ago, Serena has now also dislodged her 22-year-old sister from the top of the world rankings.

"I'm very happy right now. I've worked really hard. I really do deserve it," Serena said after reaching her first Wimbledon final with a 6-2 6-1 demolition of Frenchwoman Amelie Maursemo.

"The top spot has been a goal of mine and right now I'm enjoying the moment."

Serena sitting atop the standings also means that her controversial father Richard's prophecy has now come full circle.

He often predicted that the pair would claim the top two spots in the rankings and within a matter of five months in 2002, both have attained the status of being number one.

Paying tribute to Richard, who is not here this week, and her mother Oracene, who is, Serena said: "It's tough enough to raise one great player so that's why I appreciate my parents.

"No matter what people say about my dad and my mom, they've made not one but two champions."

Despite getting the upper hand over Venus in both of their meetings this year, Serena is still determined to stop her sister completing a hat-trick of titles at Wimbledon on Saturday.

The pair -- the first sisters to contest the Wimbledon final since Maud Watson beat Lillian in 1884 -- will be facing each other across the net in a grand slam title match for the third time in less than a year.

Serena may have grabbed the bragging rights at the French Open, but she was not about to forget her 2001 U.S. Open ordeal, where she tamely surrendered her title hopes to Venus.

"Just because I'm number one doesn't mean that I don't want to win Wimbledon," said the 20-year-old.

"I'd rather win Wimbledon right now because maybe the ranking would have come later on.

"I'm really focusing on playing Venus. At the U.S. Open it was a nightmare because she just ran away with every shot.

"So that's what I'm, going to do, just run down a lot of balls.

"I'm going to go out there and really try to win Wimbledon because I really want to belong to the All England Club."