Kim Clijsters battles past Venus to reach the final

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Two semifinals, each delicious and dramatic in its own way, brought a rather moribund women's event to crackling life at the U.S. Open yesterday.

And at the end of it, defending champion Kim Clijsters of Belgium and surprise finalist Vera Zvonareva of Russia were the two left standing for tonight's prime-time finale.

As for Clijsters and Williams, they were 6-6 going in. But Clijsters had won the last four, spanning a period both before and after her 27-month absence from the game between 2007 and 2009.

Last year in New York, they met in a crazy quarterfinal, won 6-0, 0-6, 6-4 by Clijsters.

This two-hour, 23-minute clash was much closer throughout.

Up a set, two double faults from Williams in her first two service points in the second-set tiebreaker did her in, and forced a decider

Clijsters was up a break in the third set, and gave it back with a double fault of her own, and an ill-advised swinging forehand volley that was out by several feet.

Then, at 4-4, she started to roll -just at the right time. "I guess at the end she may have made a few less errors. The last two games were just a little -you know, just went her way," Williams said.

At 30, and with her injured sister Serena sitting in the stands instead of playing, this might have been Williams's last, best chance for a major title.

"You know, I feel like the last few times I've played (Clijsters) I haven't been very healthy. So, you know, knowing that I can still obviously almost win, you know, I'm just looking forward to the last time where I can be a lot closer to 100 per cent and play even better," she said. "I'm not sure what my thoughts are. I mean, I tried really, really hard here. I tried my best to play into a rhythm and to continue to be positive. You know, it wasn't easy here to play my normal game because the wind is so bizarre."

As for the head-to-head between Clijsters and Zvonareva, the Belgian leads it 5-2.

But all five wins came before her sabbatical.

Since Clijsters's return, Zvonareva has beaten her twice, most recently at the Rogers Cup last month.

"She's a player who doesn't give you much. She's always there, hangs in there. It's not that she has a game that's very unpredictable, but what she does, she does extremely well," Clijsters said. "So it's going to be a lot different match than it was today."

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Clijsters+faces+Zvonareva+women+final/3509271/story.html#ixzz0zFEdu8Uc

Well this was pretty much as I predicted. Both players were very streaky, and it came down to who would play more solid and hold their nerve towards the end.

Just like last year Kim was the better of the two.

I do admit that at least this match was much more closely contended then last year's see-saw 3 setter.

Kim played much cleaner in the first couple of sets then she has all tournament long, so that was good to see.

But once again she let the lead slip several times. That's something she will not be able to afford against Zvonareva in tonight's final.

Especially given the fact that she has been beaten the last 2 times they've played.

I also gotta say I was happy to see Wozniacki lose, I didn't really wanna see a re-match of last year's final.

Zvonareva will be much more interesting, and certainly a much bigger challenge for Kim. Perhaps even a chance for a bit of revenge.

Looking forward to it.