Top-ranked defending champion Serena Williams advanced to a US Open final showdown with world number two Victoria Azarenka by defeating Chinese fifth seed Li Na 6-0 6-3 on Friday.
Williams will try to capture her 17th career Grand Slam title and fifth US Open crown on Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium in a rematch of last year’s final, in which Williams downed Azarenka 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.
World No.2 Victoria Azarenka reached the US Open tennis final for the second successive year on Friday with a 6-4 6-2 win over unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta.
It was Australian Open champion Azarenka’s third successive semi-final appearance in New York, but she will need to step it up in the final after committing six double faults and 25 unforced errors.
“I am so excited to be back in the final and get the chance to fight for the trophy,” said Azarenka.
“It was a great match today. There were lots of emotions. It was tricky because I struggled to find any rhythm and Flavia is such a great fighter. I couldn’t get a ball in play.”
She added: “In the final, I will be facing a great player, whoever it is. I will have to give it all I have got, all my heart, all my body and all my mind.”
In a tense, error-hit first set there were seven breaks of serve in 10 games with Azarenka, who had spent two hours more on court getting to the semi-finals than her opponent, struggling to impose her authority.
Azarenka, last year’s runner-up to Williams in New York, eventually closed out the opener on a sixth point after a 10-minute game.
Pennetta, bidding to be the first Italian woman to make the US Open final after missing the 2012 tournament due to a wrist injury, had saved two of them with a couple of scintillating groundstrokes, one off either wing.
It wasn’t pretty for Azarenka, who served up five doubles faults in the set and hit 18 unforced errors.
The second set also got off to a rocky start with three successive breaks of serve before the 23-year-old world No.2 managed to hold for 3-1 and break the flagging Italian again for a 4-1 advantage.
Pennetta called for water at the changeover but would have been better off pleading for mercy after being broken for the seventh time in eight service games.
The 31-year-old Italian, now ranked 83 but who had defeated three seeded players to reach the last four, clung on and broke back before she surrendered the advantage yet again, dropping serve for the eighth time.
It was her last chance. Azarenka went to three match points in the eighth game and claimed victory after 94 minutes with a wrong-footing forehand.