Serena Williams continued her love affair with Melbourne by easing to an emphatic 6-3 6-4 victory over an in-form Elena Dementieva to advance to a fourth Australian Open final on Thursday.
Williams’s victory under the closed roof of Rod Laver Arena ended the fourth-seeded Russian’s 15-game unbeaten streak in 2009 after Dementieva had earlier won titles at Auckland and Sydney.
The second-seeded American, who had to battle back from a 0-3 deficit in the second set after comfortably taking the first, will be hoping to continue her flawless record in Australian Open finals following her three wins from as many appearances.
The 27-year-old Williams will meet another Russian in the title match, taking on the winner of Thursday’s second semifinal between third seed Dinara Safina and seventh seed Vera Zvonareva.
”I am just really excited to be in the final, I don’t care who I play,” Williams said in a courtside interview. ”I am just so happy to get this far — all my work has paid off.”
When asked how she would prepare for Saturday’s final, she quipped: ”Hopefully I will be playing a doubles final on Friday.”
”Obviously I want to win doubles, I have the best partner,” she added, referring to sister Venus before praising the crowd.
”You guys are so awesome, come back on Saturday and cheer for me please.”
Closed roof
With Melbourne in the middle of a once-in-a-century heatwave and the air temperature above 40 degrees Celsius for a second successive day, organisers invoked the extreme heat policy at 11am local time and the match began under the closed roof.
The opening two games lasted eight minutes apiece with both players earning break points as they slugged it out from the baseline.
Despite the nervous start, Williams had to wait until the eighth game to assert her authority, breaking Dementieva to earn an opportunity to serve for the first set.
The nine-time Grand Slam champion rattled through the game and sealed the first set in 44 minutes when Dementieva’s audacious backhand drop shot landed narrowly wide.
The start of the second set was as tense as the opener, with the first game lasting a staggering 14 minutes as Williams fashioned a string of break points only for Dementieva to snatch the advantage back and eventually hold after six deuces.
The Russian then broke Williams and jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the world number two began another of her characteristic fightbacks.
She held to love, then broke Dementieva in the fifth game, despite suffering a heavy fall when she was wrong-footed by a forehand drive from the Russian.
Williams then held to level it at 3-3 before neither could hold serve, with Dementieva breaking once while Williams broke twice to give her the opportunity to serve for the match.
She managed two massive aces, the second of which prompted a frustrated squeal from Dementieva and set up match point, then sealed victory after she ran the Russian around and smashed an overhand into the open court. — Reuters