It’s an all-Williams final. Again. Deal with it. There is no one better. Each of the Williams sisters, each in her different way, played an extraordinary match in the semi-finals on Centre Court yesterday, and each showed that when it comes to the sharp end of a grand-slam tournament, the name Williams gives you an insuperable advantage.

Serena Williams was pushed every step of the way in a marvellous match with Elena Dementieva, and had to save a match point on the way as she won 6-7, 7-5, 8-6. Dementieva played the better tennis, but what’s that got to do with anything when you’ve got a Williams on the other side of the net?

Meanwhile, Venus Williams played the second semi-final against Dinara Safina and handed her a humiliation, winning 6-1, 6-0. Venus played some absolutely majestic tennis and the Russian couldn’t live with her, even before her game and her mind unravelled. And remember that Safina is the world No 1, strong, consistent, accustomed to winning. Ah, yes, but not to winning at the sharp end of a grand-slam tournament against somebody called Williams.

So the sisters will meet in a Wimbledon final for the fourth time; Serena will be playing for her third Wimbledon title, Venus for her sixth. Last year they even gave us a half-decent match, one that Venus won. And you can regard it as a searing indictment — all indictments being searing — of the women’s game, or a glorious affirmation of the brilliance of the Williams clan.

Both views have their points. The game is at present short of superstars. There are too many people like Dementieva and Safina who can’t make the breakthrough and win a slam, and not enough people with experience of winning grand-slam finals. Maria Sharapova, with her endless shoulder problems, has been left with nothing much except her grunt, and the great Belgian pair of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin both took early retirement. Clijsters, praise be, plans to return this summer, but successful comebacks are rare things.

And so it’s Williams, Williams, Williams. Serena should have lost yesterday. Dementieva did everything but win, finessing her opponent, playing the lines superbly, serving with confidence, refusing to buckle. She’s a lovely player to watch, graceful and strong-minded. It was her opportunity, for Serena was a long way from her best.

For a start, she’s not fit. Mobility was never her strong point, and she’s gone downhill. A pie or two has probably been consumed along the way, one suspects. She was blowing hard after many a point, making crucial adjustments to racket strings while she tried to get her breath back for the next point. And yet she won.

Little fool, look at me! The words of Nagaina, the cobra, to the wife of Darzee, the tailorbird, in The Jungle Book, knowing that once the bird looks at a snake, there’s no hope left.

I suspect Serena pulls off something of the same trick, somehow hypnotising her opponents to put the ball within easy commuting distance of her immobile self. If Dementieva had made her really run, she would have won.

But the sheer force of the Williams personality drives their opponents into error. And though Dementieva played a fine match, she didn’t believe in her heart of hearts that she had the right to beat a Williams. A Williams believes that she has the right to win against anybody she chooses.

As for poor Safina, she looked hypnotised from the outset, as Venus served and returned with equal venom, leaving the so-called, the alleged, the soi-disant No 1 looking as helpless as any player has ever looked on these sun-baked lawns. There wasn’t even time for it to be embarrassing.

And Venus isn’t fit, either. Yesterday, she was taped in the manner that a nervous person tapes a parcel, and then a bit more just to be on the safe side. She has a problem with her knee, and she said that she’d have cried off any other tournament in the world.

So there she is, in the final again, playing with her sister again, to a great groan of disappointment from their audience.

But heigh-ho, they can’t half play tennis, those two, and anyway there’s no one else. Some people have found them abrasive, arrogant, strident. Well, no doubt they had to be to break into the elite tennis world from their background of deprivation.

We had better savour their achievement, because, apart from anything else, there are not many other things to savour. It’s remarkable, it’s brilliant, it’s astonishing.

Their mad dad, Richard Williams, is a genius, there’s no ducking that slightly uncomfortable point either. No doubt we are all suffering a little from Williams fatigue and would relish a new storyline, a new star. Well, that will happen in due course.

Their decline is beginning, you can see it in the struggles and the strapping, but there’s no one good enough to topple them just yet, so savour the longevity as well, savour the way their non-tennis stuff — Venus’s interior design, Serena’s fashion — keeps their minds fresh and their appetites keen.

Look, the Williams sisters are absolutely bloody amazing. Deal with it.

Venus v Serena at Wimbledon
2000 semi-final Venus 6-2, 7-6
2002 final Serena 7-6, 6-3
2003 final Serena 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
2008 final Venus 7-5, 6-4