Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka navigated through their U.S. Open women's singles semifinal matches on Friday and will face-off in the final on Saturday night.
No. 4 Williams breezed past Italian Sara Errani in just over an hour, winning in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Saturday night's final will be her sixth appearance in the U.S. Open women's final.
The first semifinal of the day, however, between No. 3 Maria Sharapova and top-ranked Victoria Azarenka, lasted a grueling two hours and 42 minutes -- the last set going an hour and fourteen minutes itself -- in the intense New York heat. Azarenka, after dropping the first set 6-3, rallied to capture the final two sets of the match, 6-2, 6-4, to move on to her first U.S. Open final.
The final will be televised on CBS on Saturday night beginning at 8 p.m. ET following the two men's singles semifinal matches.
Stick with this StoryStream for scores, news updates and more from the 2012 U.S. Open. For all things tennis, head over to SB Nation's tennis hub.