Venus crushes hapless Dementieva

Standord, California:

Venus Williams reached her 65th career singles final with a 6-0, 6-1 rout of fourth seeded Russian Elena Dementieva at the WTA Bank of the West Classic.

Williams, seeded third and the champion here in 2000 and 2002, will face either Australia's Samantha Stosur or 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli of France in Sunday's final.

Stosur clinched what she called the greatest victory of her career by knocking out top seed Serena Williams in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Dementieva, winner of 13 career titles, was unable to make any impression during her 64-minute thrashing at the hands of Williams, a five-time Wimbledon winner who lost the All England Club final last month to her younger sister.

Dementieva was playing at Stanford for the first time as she prepares for the US Open starting August 31.

The one-sided victory handed Williams a 31-7 record so far in 2009, with titles in Dubai and Acapulco.

Williams, who served up five double faults to her opponent's four, made up for the deficit with five breaks of the Russian, whose first-serve percentage finished at a low 43 percent.

Dementieva now stands 42-12 on the season after January's back-to-back titles in Auckland and Sydney.

Williams's victory gave her a ninth win in 11 meetings against Dementieva and was her sixth in succession over the Russian blonde.