Serena beats Wozniacki to reach Cincinnati final

CINCINNATI, Aug 17 (AFP): Serena Williams moved within one win of a second pre-US Open hardcourt title Saturday, reaching the Cincinnati final with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Caroline Wozniacki.

The world number one American, who claimed her 61st career WTA title at Stanford two weeks ago, will face off Sunday against either fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova or ninth-seeded Ana Ivanovic.

Those two were meeting Saturday night in a battle of former world number ones.

Williams, playing a third tournament in a row for the first time since late 2007, improved her 2014 match record to 37-6.

The 32-year-old said that she needed a set to find her game after a slow start in a match which featured 15 breaks of serve, seven of them in the final set.

"I got off to a little bit of a slow start, but I was definitely in it," said Williams, who followed up her win in Stanford by reaching the semi-finals last week at Montreal, where she lost to her sister Venus. "I had to get out there and grind out everything.