US Open, Flushing Meadows
Dates: 30 August - 12 September Start time: 1600 BST
Coverage: Live text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles; updates on BBC Radio 5 live; live on Sky Sports

Vera Zvonareva salutes the crowd after beating top seed Caroline Wozniacki

By Les Roopanarine

Vera Zvonareva underlined her emergence as a major force in the women's game by outplaying top seed Caroline Wozniacki to reach the US Open final.

Echoing the qualities that underpinned her impressive run to the Wimbledon final, the Russian showed confidence and composure to go through 6-4 6-3.

A struggling Wozniacki rarely came close to reproducing the imperious form that had taken her into the last four.

Zvonareva faces Kim Clijsters in the final after she beat Venus Williams.

"I'm happy with the way I played today," said seventh seed Zvonareva, 26. "It was a tough match, Caroline was here in the finals last year and she's a great player.

"It was very difficult for both of us with the wind, but I think I was patient and aggressive like in the previous matches."

606: DEBATE Your reaction to Zvonareva's victory over Wozniacki

While the tennis itself was of uneven quality - the players made a combined total of 56 unforced errors, 25 of which came from the victorious Muscovite - the match offered ample evidence of Zvonareva's growing maturity.

There was a time when the very idea of facing the top seed in a Grand Slam semi-final in a swirling, treacherous wind might have been enough to send Zvonareva into emotional meltdown.

But Zvonareva, who like her Danish opponent made it to the semi-finals without dropping a set, rarely strayed outside her comfort zone, simply keeping the ball in play, moving her more fancied adversary from side to side, and serving with a belief and consistency that yielded five aces.

Above all, when potential crisis beckoned, Zvonareva refused to falter. At 3-3 in the first set, a double fault followed by an errant forehand brought up two break points for Wozniacki. She responded with a 106 mph ace, patiently clawed her way back into the game, and held with something to spare.

Wozniacki, 20, recovered from a break down early in the second set, but there was to be no repeat of last year's appearance in the final, no fairytale ending for the girl from Odense, the Danish town where Hans Christian Andersen was born.

The Dane, who would have replaced Serena Williams as world number one had she lifted the title, ran out a comfortable winner against Zvonareva in Montreal recently as she extended a sequence that brought her 13 successive wins.

But just as it was beginning to seem she would live up to her billing as title favourite, Wozniacki looked a shadow of the player who saw off former champion Maria Sharapova so impressively earlier in the week, a point she conceded afterwards.

"She played a really good game," said Wozniacki. "She was not missing a lot. She was going for her shots, most things were going in. I had chances and I made some mistakes today that I usually don't do."

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