Sharapova rolls into Aussie final

MELBOURNE — Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka reached Saturday’s women’s final of the Australian Open with victories today in the semifinals.

Sharapova defeated Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, after Arazena beat defending Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

The third-seeded Azarenka recovered her composure twice in periods when a resurgent Clijsters seemed to have the upper hand, breaking the veteran Belgian’s serve three times in the third set to secure victory in only her second appearance in a major semifinal.

Azarenka, Kvitova and Sharapova can all finish the tournament with the No. 1 ranking.

After a strong start, Azarenka’s serve deserted her in the second set and Clijsters dictated play with her solid groundstrokes and some amazing defense.

But after getting the momentum back, it was Clijsters who blinked first in the third set, dropping serve in the second game and again in the fourth. She got two of those service games back, including one when she rallied from 40-0 down to win a game to get the score back to 4-3.

But Azarenka rallied immediately again, breaking serve. She got triple match point trying to serve out the match and, after a double-fault on her first, she clinched it on a Clijsters’ error.

Azarenka threw her racket on the court and sank to her knees, bent over with her hands covering her face. Clijsters came around the net to congratulate her.

“I felt like my hand is about 200 kilograms and my body is about 1,000 and everything is shaking, but that feeling when you finally win is such a relief. My God, I cannot believe it’s over. I just want to cry,” Azarenka said as she choked back tears.

On the men’s side, top-ranked Novak Djokovic held off No. 5 David Ferrer last night in a second-set tiebreaker and then raced through the third set for a 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-1 win, setting up a rematch of last year’s final against fourth-ranked Andy Murray.

In a late match, No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Roger Federer were scheduled to play for a spot in the men’s finals.