Williams ends Dementieva's unbroken run

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Women’s second seed Serena Williams has eased through to the women’s singles final at Australian Open 2009, defeating Russia’s Elena Dementieva 6-3 6-4 in their semifinal on Thursday afternoon.

With the roof closed on Rod Laver Arena as Melbourne swelters through another day of temperatures well into the 40s, the nine-time Grand Slam singles champion knocked off the fourth-seeded Russian, who had yet to lose a singles match in 2009 before today.

Williams, the women’s singles champion here in 2003, 2005 and 2007, will play the winner of this afternoon’s Vera Zvonareva/Dinara Safina semifinal in the final, which will be held on Saturday night.

The first set proceeded on serve until the eighth game, where Williams broke the Russian to take a 5-3 lead. She served out the set soon after, Dementieva’s eighth unforced error of the opening set coming on an errant backhand chip down the line. Williams served six aces and no double faults in the opening set, which lasted 44 minutes and saw the second seed win 94 per cent of points where she landed her first serve.

The early stages of the second set produced some spectacular tennis, with Dementieva eventually holding after saving three break points in a game that went to deuce six times and lasted 14 minutes. Dementieva then broke Williams for the first time in the match in the next game, sealing the break by drilling a backhand down the line for a 2-0 advantage.

Games then went on serve until the fifth game of the set, where back-to-back double faults by the Russian, her fourth and fifth of the second set, saw Williams break back for 2-3. The game featured the point of the match, a rally of more than 40 shots that only ended when Williams took a tumble on the baseline in her attempts to reach a fiercely-struck crosscourt forehand by Dementieva.

Williams leveled at 3-3 and then broke Dementieva again for a 4-3 advantage, punishing the Russian for her high unforced error count (17 in the first seven games of the set) and wayward first serve.

Dementieva stood her ground in the eighth game, producing a series of blistering forehands that saw her break back after Williams sent a backhand sailing over the baseline, but the American produced the fifth break of serve for the set in the next game, serving out the match soon after in 98 minutes.

Quick facts

Williams served 10 aces to Dementieva’s three, while Dementieva had eight double faults, all of them in the second set

Williams had 27 winners to Dementieva’s 18, while Dementieva had 28 unforced errors to the American’s 34

Williams converted four of her 10 break point opportunities, while Dementieva was 2-for-6 on break point chances

Dementieva served at just 42 per cent in the second set

Source:www.australianopen.com