Venus to face Zvonareva in final

Venus Williams will play Vera Zvonareva in the final of the WTA Championships after both achieved three-set victories yesterday.

Wimbledon champion Williams overcame Serbian world number one Jelena Jankovic 6-2 2-6 6-3, and Zvonareva beat fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 7-6 3-6 6-3.

The match between Williams and Jankovic produced high-quality rallies as both players defended well but attacked at every opportunity.

Jankovic made a slow start and produced numerous errors, while her American opponent's strong forehand helped her to break twice to lead 4-1.

Jankovic raised her game and, although it was too late to save the first set, she took the second.

She recovered from 0-40 in the first game, winning nine of the next 10 points and going on to lead 3-0. She held off another threat after Williams broke for 3-2, saving two game points for 3-3 before breaking Williams again for 4-2.

The final set was the most closely contested, with Williams breaking for 2-1 and then fighting off five break points to hold for 4-2. As errors once more began to appear in Jankovic's game, Williams broke a final time for the match.

In the other semi neither player hit a single ace in the two-hour-20-minute battle as they both struggled to produce their best tennis.

The first set was particularly disappointing, with breaks in eight of the 12 games and seven of the last nine points in the tiebreak going against serve.

Fifth seed Dementieva served for the first set twice, at 5-4 and 6-5, and she held a set point in the tiebreak at 7-6 before losing it 9-7.

Both settled down and produced some decent rallies, although not on a consistent basis. Zvonareva dropped her serve with a double fault to fall behind 2-0, then wasted a break point when 3-1 down.

The eighth seed quickly regained the upper hand in the final set, breaking for 2-0 when Dementieva made a backhand error.

Although Dementieva broke back at 4-2, when a blistering return forced an error, another backhand error allowed Zvonareva to break again and serve out the match to love.