Serena Williams - File

NEW YORK (AP):

SERENA WILLIAMS dealt with a strong wind much better than Dinara Safina did and won their semi-final 6-3, 6-2 yesterday to get back to the US Open title match for the first time since 2002.

Williams got off to a shaky start against Safina, the younger sister of 2000 US Open men's champion Marat Safin. Broken in her first service game, Williams fell behind 2-0, but she won seven of the next eight games, eventually doing a much better job than Safina of dealing with wind that gusted at over 20 mph.

unforced errors

Safina wound up with 41 unforced errors, and she repeatedly rolled her eyes or shook her head or shouted at herself in English or Russian. A few points after being pelted by the ball, Safina hit her fifth double-fault of the match and yelled, "I hate the wind!" Two points after that, Safina pushed a backhand long and Williams broke to lead 2-1 in the second set.

"I thought, 'OK, if it's so windy, then I'm not going to go for so many winners'," said Williams, who didn't produce her first winning forehand until the match was 30 minutes old.

In tonight's final, the fourth-seeded Williams will face No. 2 Jelena Jankovic, who beat Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-4. In addition to the silver trophy at stake, either Williams or Jankovic will earn the No. 1 spot in the rankings next week.

That final is scheduled for tonight, but forecasts calling for rain much of the day prompted tournament organisers to announce contingency plans that could include postponing the match until tomorrow.