However two crosscourt forehand errors from Serena and an ace out wide from Venus would lead to Venus holding serve to reach the tiebreaker.

An improved Venus has shown more consistency than Serena in the last several weeks and proved today also to be the the more consistent sister overall as well.

Venus however plays an even more powerful, harder hitting, higher risk baseline game than her sister and is prone to often committing too many baseline errors early in a tiebreaker.

Venus fell behind 0-5 in the tiebreaker following three forehand errors and a backhand error coupled with an ace down the tee from Serena; her 12th ace of the set.

At 2-6, a Venus backhand down the line hit long ended the tiebreaker.

In set two, Venus struck several piercing crosscourt forehands to power to a lead 3-0 before wrapping the set up following two breaks of her sister’s serve.

Serving down 2-5 Serena, under pressure from Venus’ baseline game, hit two consecutive double faults followed by a netted crosscourt backhand on setpoint to level the match at one set all.

Venus would finish set two with only two unforced errors.

And with Serena continuing to step behind the baseline while Venus stepped into it to power her groundstrokes in the final set, Venus held serve to lead 3-2.

In the next game, a Serena double fault followed by a netted crosscourt backhand on breakpoint sent Venus ahead a break of serve at 4-2.

One hold of serve from each of the sisters put the score at 5-3.

With Venus serving for the match, her forehand; which at times can be inconsistent compared to her backhand, continued to pressure her Serena into errors.

Serena struck a backhand down the line winner to lead 15-0 and had finished the day with a remarkable 19 aces but it would not be enough today.

At 40-30, Serena netted a forehand return to end the semifinal match after two hours and one minute of play.

“I’ve been feeling better,” Venus Williams who suffers from an energy draining Sjogren’s Syndrome said after the match.

“All I can do is pray to hang on to that. And to keep some of that control in my life. Because if I have that control, then I can enjoy being on the court and win as well.”

For the day Serena hit 35 winners to 32 unforced errors while Venus hit 23 winners to 20 unforced errors.

In tomorrow’s Roger’s Cup final, Venus meets the third seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

Making her return to playing quality tennis this year following recent illnesses, Venus Williams is set to move in the WTA Tour rankings next week from number 26 to 20. If Venus wins tomorrow’s final, she could move to 18.

With the second ranked Na Li of China to miss the upcoming US Open with injury, Venus needs to be ranked 17th or higher to get a 16th or better seed, where she would not face a top player until week two in the fourth round.

Both of the Williams sisters are entered next week in the Western & Southern Open at Cincinnati, Ohio; however they could only meet in the final round as they are listed on opposite sides of the draw.