Battling Serena sets up Azarenka showdown

Serena Williams survived a testing examination from fellow American Sloane Stephens at the Brisbane International yesterday to book a semi-final against world number one Victoria Azarenka.

Williams was pushed all the way by her Fed Cup team-mate in the last of the four quarter-finals before winning 6-4, 6-3 in 71 minutes in Pat Rafter Arena.

Earlier Azarenka, of Belarus, swept aside the challenge of Kazakhstan qualifier Ksenia Pervak 6-1, 6-0 in her most impressive display of the tournament.

Williams and Azarenka have met 12 times previously, with Williams winning all but one of those encounters.

Today’s clash will be a tantalising warm-up for this month’s Australian Open, where there is a strong possibility the two women will meet in either the semi-finals or final.

“I’m going up against the best player in the world,” Williams said.

“She’s had a fabulous year, she won the Australian Open and has been the most consistent all year. I’ve got nothing to lose. I can go out there and see where my game is at.”

Williams, 31, has hardly been pushed this week and was expected to waltz through her clash with Stephens in their first ever meeting.

But Stephens matched the world number three shot for shot, often leaving Williams stranded on the baseline with the power and accuracy of her groundstrokes.

Azarenka was in superb form as she crushed Pervak, who had upset former world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the first round.

“It was pretty good, even though we had some tough games I felt I was playing really well at the important moments and taking my chances to close out the games,” she said.

The second semi-final will be between Lesia Tsurenko, of Ukraine, and Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.