Women's third seed Victoria Azarenka has moved into her first Grand Slam final with victory over defending Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters in their semi-final on Thursday.
In a high quality match, both women slugged it out for over two hours before Azarenka finally emerged victorious in a 6-4 1-6 6-3 result.
Clijsters had marginally more winners (26-20) and unforced errors (44-40) than Azarenka, but failed to take her chances in a gripping final set after a dominant second set to level the match.
Azarenka's precise ground strokes were a constant feature throughout and despite Clijsters' immense ability to seemingly run down everything the Belarusian threw at her, it eventually proved too much for the four-time Grand Slam champion.
After both players held their opening service games, Azarenka landed the first blow with a break in the third game thanks to a crushing forehand winner.
Clijsters had the chance to hit back immediately, but failed to convert her four break-point chances as Azarenka consolidated her advantage.
The Belgian saved two set points on her serve in the ninth game, but Azarenka had no troubles serving out the set.
After such a tight opening set, the second couldn't have been more of a contrast with Clijsters conceding just one game.
She broke in the second and fourth game to race out to a 5-0 lead before easily serving out the set to level the match.
The topsy-turvy nature of the match continued into the third with Azarenka breaking in the second game only to hand it straight back with two double faults in her following service game.
Clijsters then got the jitters with a double fault on break point handing the initiative back to Azarenka and this time she was able to consolidate to open up a 4-1 lead.
Azarenka had six game points for a 5-2 lead, but Clijsters refused to give up and on her first opportunity broke back to get the deciding set back on serve.
Despite having all the momentum and the crowd behind her, Clijsters failed to hold serve and presented Azarenka with a chance to serve for the match.
A string of Clijsters errors gave Azarenka three match points and despite a nervous double fault on her first one, she succeeded with her second to advance to the final where she will play either Czech second seed Petra Kvitova or Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova.