Click photo to enlarge
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.
Second seeded American Serena Williams is into her fourth
Australian Open final.
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.
