Fourth seed Maria Sharapova will play third seed Victoria Azarenka in Saturday's Australian Open final after she defeated Petra Kvitova 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.
Sharapova will look to repeat her victory of 2008 in the final, as she meets Azarenka, who had earlier beaten Kim Clijsters to qualify for her first Grand Slam tournament final.
The semifinal showdown was a tight affair, with the total points evidence of this: Sharapova edged Kvitova by 86 points to 84.
The Russian was soon ahead on the scoreboard when she broke the Czech player's serve in the third game of the match, however, she immediately conceded a break back to 2-2.
That proved to be the only blemish in an otherwise strong first set for Sharapova, as she broke twice more and raced away with the first set, 6-2.
But Kvitova was far from finished and she hit back in the second set as Sharapova lost her rhythm. The world No.2 found some of the form that took her to the Wimbledon title last year and she leveled the score, sending the match into a decider.
Kvitova carried on her momentum in the third, clinching the first break of the set. But, after Sharapova broke back the pressure swung back towards her opponent, and late in the set Sharapova capitalised, eventually sealing the match in two hours and 12 minutes.
More to come ...
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