Tennis: Fourth Open final for Williams

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Serena Williams of the United States reacts after winning a point against Russia's Elena Dementieva during their Women's singles semifinal at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, today. Photo Dita Alangkara/AP.

Williams defeated Russian Elena Dementieva 6-3 6-4 in 99 minutes.

Williams previously won the Open in 2003, 2005 and 2007 and now has the chance to take her 10th grand slam title.

The pair went into the match with Williams holding a 4-3 win-loss record but Dementieva had won the past three meetings, including their semi-final in Sydney this year.

The American gained the sole service break in the eighth game of the first set when the Russian returned a shot wide down the line.

She held match point in the next game and clinched the set when Dementieva's drop shot attempt flopped.

Dementieva was poised to level the score when she raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set before Williams broke back to trail 2-3 on the back of consecutive double faults from the Russian.

A further break to Dementieva saw the games levelled at 4-4 before the American retrieved it to lead 5-4 and clung on to take the match.

Williams will face the winner in Thursday's second semi-final between Russians Vera Zvonareva and Dinara Safina.