Pre-match analysis: Williams v Kvitova

The style of tennis Serena Williams plays is potent on every surface other than clay, where she struggles with her movement as she isn't comfortable sliding into her shots.

On grass, she possesses the necessary weapons to be wholly effective; a powerful first serve, a fantastic second serve, aggressive returns and a will to win that's second to none.

And so far in The Championships she's excelled in all of the above. Her quickest serve was struck at 125mph, three miles an hour shy of the fastest that was hit by sister Venus. Where her serve really comes into its own is in the variation she's able to use when stepping up to the line.

Serena is able to hit both a slice and a flat serve off the same ball toss so it is extremely difficult for opponents to read, and therefore she's been able to win so many more free points than any of her peers. She leads the event in regard to total aces served with a gargantuan 73 and, to put that into perspective, Venus is in second place with a relatively paltry 30.

Serena is also ahead for those left in the event in terms of the effectiveness of her first serve. She has won 156 of the 175 points she has played when her first serve has gone in, which equates to 89%. Vera Zvonareva is closest as far as the semi-finalists are concerned at 79%, Serena's semi-final opponent, Petra Kvitova, has won 74% and Tsvetana Pironkova trails in last in this regard with 73%.

So Serena has a huge advantage over all of her opponents given she can hold serve much more comfortably. In fact, she's only dropped two service games so far; one against Maria Sharapova and the other against Na Li.

So that will be the challenge that faces Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic. Will she be able to return well enough to make a difference?

Unfortunately, there's more bad news for the 20-year-old. As a left-hander, her favourite serve will naturally go out to Serena's backhand, which is her strongest groundstroke. The American's favourite serve is the slider out wide to the deuce court, which will expose Kvitova's backhand and open up the court for Williams to expose.

They have only met once previously and that was earlier this year at the Australian Open in a match that Serena dominated from start to finish, eventually winning 6-2, 6-1.Few would bet against the outcome being any different this time around.

There's no question that Kvitova has hit a rich vein of form. Her victory over Victoria Azarenka and her demolition of Caroline Wozniacki were truly outstanding. But, given her lack of experience at this level, the importance of the occasion and the fact that she's up against the best player on the planet, the Wimbledon final is surely still a world away.