Clijsters shakes off Sharapova

Kim Clijsters let five match points slip away in the second set before advancing to the US Open final with a hard-fought 6-2 6-7 (4/7) 6-3 win over top seed Maria Sharapova at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Most of the match was somewhat one-sided in favour of fourth seed Clijsters, who easily claimed the first set and appeared on her way to a straight-sets victory.

However, Sharapova battled back from a 5-4 deficit in the second set and staved off elimination five times during the 12th game.

Sharapova was down 0-40 and faced triple match point. But she stayed alive by capping a 29-stroke rally with a drop shot from beyond the baseline.

After twice reaching deuce, Sharapova forced a tiebreaker when Clijsters returned her serve wide.

But after losing the tiebreak, Clijsters quickly surged ahead 4-0 in the final set.

The 18-year-old Sharapova won three of the next four games to get within 5-3 but on the 21st stroke of her final rally, the Russian hit the ball into the net, ending the match in two hours 14 minutes.

The win gives the 23-year-old Clijsters another opportunity to shed the label of being the best player on the women’s tour not to win a Grand Slam. The Belgian has been to four Grand Slam finals, including the US Open in 2003, when she lost to compatriot Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Clijsters also continued her remarkable comeback from left wrist surgery in June 2004. She was ranked as low as 134th in early March but is now 55-6 this year.

She will face Mary Pierce, who has won two Grand Slams but is in the US Open final for the first time.

Pierce became the first Frenchwoman to advance to the US Open final with a 3-6 6-2 6-2 victory over sixth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia.

The 12th seed, who entered the semi-finals without dropping a set, received treatment on her back and legs from a WTA Tour trainer after losing the first set to Dementieva.

With her upper right leg taped, Pierce regained mobility and began to attack the net more frequently. She also broke serve early in each of the final two sets and cruised to victory.

Pierce established a 5-1 lead in the third set but lost the seventh game. After the eighth game went to deuce three times, Pierce finished off the match with an ace and a serve that Dementieva returned wide.

The 30-year-old Pierce is in the finals of a Grand Slam for the sixth time. She won the 1995 Australian Open and the 2000 French Open and heads into the final with 22 wins in her last 24 matches.

“My back was bothering me from the very beginning of the match,” Pierce said. “I hit a lot of double faults and that’s very uncharacteristic.

“Then my leg, it was something that I already injured. I didn’t want to walk out there with tape around my leg. I guess I just didn’t want my opponent to know that there was anything wrong with me.”

Afterwards, Dementieva did not hesitate to address the time-out, which was legal and approved by the chair umpire.

“I think you can change the game around by winning an unbelievable point or by changing the rhythm,” she said. “But by taking a 12-minute time-out, I don’t think it was a fair play but she could do it. If that’s the only way she can beat me, it’s up to her.

“It didn’t affect my game. But do I think she had something? I don’t think so. But you know she could do it by the rules and she did it.”

Pierce denied that was aiming for a type of gamesmanship to take Dementieva off her game.

“I have been on the tour 17 years,” she said. “I don’t believe in that. I don’t think that will make a difference. I just needed to do what I needed to do for my body and that’s really it.

“After the break she didn’t play as well,” Pierce said. “She started making more mistakes. Her serves were not as hard.”

On becoming the first woman to reach the final, Pierce said: “That’s really cool. I did not know that. That’s very special. I am proud of that.”

Clijsters did not blame herself for failing to take any of her five match points in the second set, instead praising the way Sharapova played with her back against the wall.

“I know I didn’t play bad shots there,” Clijsters said. “She had to come up with good shots and she did. She probably hit better shots in those points than she hit in the whole match, I think.”

Clijsters was confident her fitness would tell in the third set, and it did.

“I know I am not going to get tired if I have to play a third set and that’s a great feeling to have – knowing that’s not going to be a problem for me.”

Sharapova admitted she tired in the deciding set. “I kind of gave it all I had in the tiebreaker,” she said. “Then the third, I just kind of ran out of gas basically.

“When the points started getting longer and longer, I felt that she had the advantage. She was able to execute them well.

“She’s a great athlete. She moves amazing. That’s a big plus in tennis.”