Serena sweeps into final

By Diane Pucin

Jan. 29, 2009 12 AM PT

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA —

The first two games lasted nearly 12 minutes, accounted for 29 points and were filled with pummeling power, forehands and backhands that swept across the sidelines, precise and ferocious, and even though Serena Williams won the first of them and Elena Dementieva the second, a pattern had already been established.

Williams was moving on her toes and she was ready to run. It took Williams 1 hour 39 minutes, she served 10 aces, she hit 27 winners and now she can aim for her fourth career Australian Open singles title after she beat No. 4-seeded Dementieva, 6-3, 6-4, today in the Australian Open semifinals.

In Saturday’s final, second-seeded Williams will play another Russian, third-seeded Dinara Safina, who beat yet another Russian, seventh-seeded Vera Zvonareva, 6-3, 7-6 (4). Williams is trying to win her 10th Grand Slam tournament event while Safina is in only her second major final and is looking for her first win.

Dementieva, the 27-year-old with ferociously confident groundstrokes, has never won one of tennis’ four major titles partly because of her curiously fragile serve, and that stroke let her down again.

She had eight double faults, including consecutive ones in the fifth game of the second set when Williams earned a redeeming service break to close in on Dementieva after the Russian had raced to a 3-0 second-set lead.

“I think I did some double faults not in good moments,” said Dementieva, who had opened this season by winning 15 straight matches and who had a three-match winning streak against Williams, including a 6-3, 6-1 win in an Australian Open warm-up event in Sydney two weeks ago.

“It was a good match,” Dementieva said. “Serena played really well. I think I was maybe not aggressive enough and maybe I was playing not deep enough, but she was very powerful today. She was moving better, her first-serve percentage was quite high; it was very difficult on her service game to make any impressions. It was a good match.”

By the midway point of the first game, both Williams and Dementieva were noisily marking their efforts. Williams punctuated each increasingly powerful forehand or backhand with a loud “oomph” and Dementieva tested the octave levels with screeches that might break glass.

There was no question today about whether the roof of the Rod Laver Arena would be opened or closed.

As the temperatures outside again climbed toward 110, the roof was closed but by the second game Williams’ royal blue dress and Dementieva’s bright red one were stained with sweat.

The only service break in the first set came from Williams in the eighth game. It came suddenly in a game with Dementieva ahead, 40-15, and when it looked likely the set would go to a tiebreak.

Instead, Williams won four straight points by using her accurate forehand to push Dementieva around the court. On break point, a supremely frustrated Dementieva screamed after Williams had forced her to lunge for a forehand that went wide.

Williams served out the set when Dementieva, showing impatience, tried a drop shot. The lackluster attempt was wide and after 44 minutes Williams had confirmation that her effort was working.

Even when Williams had her serve broken in the second game of the second set, the only sloppy game she played when she had four unforced errors, she didn’t seem discouraged.

“I was really calm today,” she said. “I felt like I wanted to stay calm and stay focused more than anything.”

Both players agreed that playing under cover today was the wise choice.

“It was just too hot,” Dementieva said.

“It was the safe advantage for everyone,” Williams said.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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Australian Open

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING ...

Roger Federer (2) of Switzerland played Andy Roddick (7) of the U.S. in men’s singles semifinals.

Venus and Serena Williams of the U.S. played Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Francesca Schiavone of Italy in the women’s doubles semifinals.

Mike and Bob Bryan of the U.S. played Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India in the men’s doubles semifinals.

Go to latimes.com/sports for details of all these matches.