MELBOURNE, Australia – Serena Williams finally hit form to oust Olympic champion Elena Dementieva and move into her fourth Australian Open final.
Now one more Russian, Dinara Safina, stands between Williams and a 10th Grand Slam title.
Williams, who won the Australian title in 2003, 2005 and 2007, played her best match of the tournament in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Dementieva early today.
“I haven’t moved like that for a while, so I was a little shocked,” said Williams, still leaving room for improvement. “A perfect match for me? Oh, no, no, no. But it was definitely better.”
She will get her chance to extend the alternate-year sequence of titles when she meets No. 3-ranked Safina, who beat fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semifinal.
The winner of tomorrow night’s final also will earn the No. 1 ranking.
Safina’s older brother, Marat Safin, won the title here in 2005, the day after Williams had beaten then No. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the women’s final.
Safina has yet to win a major, losing the 2008 French Open final to Ana Ivanovic in her best previous run. She lost to Williams in last year’s U.S. Open semifinals.
The roof was closed at Rod Laver Arena for both women’s semifinals, protecting the players and fans from outside temperatures topping 111 degrees.
Williams commended tournament organizers for deciding early to close the roof rather than wait, as they had yesterday, until halfway through her quarterfinal against Svetlana Kuznetsova.
“It was really, really hot today,” she said.
News updates during the semifinals reported it was the hottest January day since 1939 in Melbourne. The temperature hit 112 at 4:43 p.m.
Roger Federer, seeking a record-equaling 14th Grand Slam singles title to match Pete Sampras’ career record, was playing American Andy Roddick in the night semifinal.
No. 2 Federer, who is 15-2 against the seventh-seeded Roddick, who beat defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal set up an all-Spanish final against Fernando Verdasco when he beat No. 6 Gilles Simon 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 on Wednesday night.
Verdasco ousted 2008 runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
