American teenager Venus Williams powered through the semifinals of the Sydney International yesterday, but Aranxta Sanchez Vicario stood in the way of an all Williams final.
A seven-match winning streak here took its toll on 16-year-old Serena Williams, who lost 6-2 6-1 to the Spanish fifth seed. Sanchez Vicario welcomed the new crop of hot young teenagers on the tennis scene, but warned they would find some stiff competition from the more established players.
"Even though I'm 10 years older than them I'm still there, and experience counts a lot," said the world number nine.
Venus Williams had some trouble closing out her semi-final against Japan's top player Ai Sugiyama but eventually the towering 17-year-old overpowered her diminutive opponent 6-1 7-6 (7-2).
The elder Williams said she had reached a milestone in reaching the final of the Sydney tournament, where she will play Sanchez Vicario for her first tour title.
"In the past, I've had some mental problems, when I get into tough matches just to hang tough and really go at it," she said. "Just to believe that the opponent's not going to give it to me - I have to take it."
On her way to the finals, she scored an upset win over world number one Martina Hingis, a victory which helped send her ranking from 21 to 15 this week.
The Williams duo certainly appear to be brimming with confidence - this week they predicted they would dominate the women's field at the Australian Open next week.
"I was brought up to be strong because it's not an easy world out there," Venus said yesterday. She also said that some of that confidence came from their days on the junior circuit, where the Amazonian pair thrashed all comers.
"I believe I was so much stronger and taller than the other girls, it was just a joke," she said.
Among the men at the Sydney tournament, Britain's Tim Henman sent Australian first seed Pat Rafter packing, to secure a finals berth in the tournament he won last year.
"It's obviously a good win, a great win, one of my best," said Henman, who is ranked 19th in the world.
"Especially in the circumstances, the way he's been playing recently in his home country. It's a good win and a great boost for me going into the (Australian) Open."
Former world number one Steffi Graf is set to return to competition in Tokyo in February following seven months out injured, according to her manager Hans Engert. "She is on course to come back in February and hopes to reach the heights again in world tennis," 28-year-old Engert said.
Graf's knee, which had screws taken out of it in November, is no longer painful, Engert added. Graf has not played competitively since losing last June in the quarter-finals of the French Open to South Africa's Amanda Coetzer.
