Venus pips Seles, moves into finals

In an all-American semifinal showdown, Venus Williams, the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champion and Monica Seles, Australia's favourite American, slugged away at each other for three sets before the former won through into the final of the women's tennis event in Sydney.

Venus started off in her usual blistering fashion, using her powerful serve and tremendous agility to run Seles ragged and take the first set 6-1.

She seemed on course to give the former world champion a 2-0 drubbing, when in the second set Venus raced away to a 4-1 lead. But then her normally reliable serve let her down in blustery, rainy conditions and Seles, fighting for every point, pulled back from the brink to take the set 6-4.

As the weather improved, so did Venus -- Seles fought hard, but was completely outgunned by her opponent in the third, with Venus using her awesome power to subdue the Seles serve and race away to a quick 4-1 lead before serving out the set at 6-3.

Home-town darling Jelena Dokic, the lone Australian left in the singles event following the demise of the highly fancied men Patrick Rafter, Mark Phillipoussis and Leyton Hewitt, will play Russia's Elena Dementieva in the other semifinal.

Mail your comments