US tennis star Serena Williams celebrates her women’s singles semi-final win over Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka on day 10 of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships in London on Thursday. — AFP photo

Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwanksa will meet in today’s Wimbledon final in a battle of raw power against slender poise and expectation over hope.
Four-time champion Williams, the 30-year-old sixth seed, buried Victoria Azarenka under a record firestorm of 24 aces to reach her seventh Wimbledon final on Thursday, winning 6-3, 7-6 (8/6).
Third seed Radwanska, seven years Williams’s junior, became the first Polish Grand Slam finalist for 73 years when she cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 win over Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
As well as a record 24 aces, beating her own best of 23 set against Zheng Jie in the third round, Williams also fired a whopping 45 winners.
She has now hit a total of 85 aces in the tournament which even puts her into second place on the men’s list where only Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber has hit more with 98.
Williams will start as the hot favourite on Saturday having beaten Radwanska in their two meetings without dropping a set, including the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2008 where the American lost just four games.
‘I’ve been working so hard, I really wanted it,’ said Williams, the first 30-year-old to reach the All England Club final since Steffi Graf in 1999.
‘She was playing well and I got a little tight in the second set. I was looking too far in the future. I was so close, but I can’t do that. I was happy to get through that second set tie-break.’
Williams, who won the first of her four Wimbledon titles 10 years ago, insisted that the destination of the 2012 crown is far from a foregone conclusion despite her brutal power being expected to overwhelm the slender Radwanska.
Williams played two doubles matches on Wednesday with sister Venus, but showed no signs of fatigue against Azarenka, taking the first set courtesy of eight aces and 20 winners, while allowing her opponent just four points on serve.
That was the first set dropped by the 22-year-old Belarusian at the tournament.
Buoyed by a 7-1 winning record against the Australian Open champion, who could have retaken the world number one spot had she won, Williams broke for a 2-1 lead in the second set, secured with a sweeping forehand service return.