Serena, Sharapova Avoid the Choke to Advance to WTA Championships Dream Final

At the WTA Championships Sunday in Los Angleles, in what was a repeat of their earlier Wimbledon meeting, Amelie Mauresmo choked away a set and a break lead to hand Serena Williams a 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 victory and a berth in the final.

Serving at 5-2 in the first, Mauresmo went to the throat clutch, tossing in two double faults and a muffed sitter forehand volley to drop serve, then stifled more shakes at 5-4 to successfully serve it out. In the second set the Frenchwoman was up a break but dropped serve with a double fault on game point.

In the second-set tiebreak Serena stepped up her play with some key volleying and aggressive returning off the Frenchwoman's second serve. The play of Mauresmo in contrast was punctuated by sitter forehands in the middle of the net and poor decision-making, resulting in the American rallying crowd support to take the match to a third set.

Both players held serve in the third until 3-3 when Serena boldly jumped on the Mauresmo second serve to break for the 4-3 lead. The eighth game went to multiple deuces when Serena clutched her throat to join the choke-fest, hitting tentative strokes, throwing in slow, spinning second serves and trying to nervously end points on the first stroke.

In a game that lasted almost 20 minutes with 13 deuces, including a Serena double-fault on a game point, the American finally held serve and received a standing ovation from the crowd, in recognition of what was not apparent. Two quality first sets had dissolved into a tight high school state championship encounter, with games awarded to the player who choked the least.

Mauresmo then held on for 4-5 in the third before, with Serena serving, Mauresmo attempted a shaky net approach and netted a simple return-of-serve slice to eventually hand the match to Serena, who bounced up and down in her tutu at the net in celebration.

Afterwards speaking to host broadcaster ESPN, Serena failed to acknowledge her tight play, instead saying she felt the opposite.

"I was so relaxed out there I really felt like I had nothing to lose," said Serena, who was apparently playing a different match than the one broadcast by ESPN. "My arm is pretty much shot but I'll keep trying to win for tomorrow. I have 24 hours to recover and I'll do the icing and all that."

In the third set alone Mauresmo amassed an 0-12 mark on break points, a perfect record when it came to her inability to take charge in critical situations. The loss also ended the Frenchwoman's chances of surpassing Lindsay Davenport for the coveted year-end No. 1 ranking.

"I think she just went for it," Mauresmo said. "I would give all the credit to her today. I was playing some good tennis, and she raised her game. Except on one, maybe two, break points, I felt like I forced her to play her best level and make some unbelievable passing shots. And that's what she did."

In the Monday final Serena will face the WTA's new face of underage porn, Maria Sharapova, who came back from a set down to defeat Russian countrywoman Anastasia Myskina 2-6, 6-2, 6-2. After winning the first set Myskina began to unravel up 1-0 up in the second, gesturing angrily at the overhead "Jumbo-tron" screen and shooting nervous glances to her coach in the stands. Myskina also took a medical time-out to have her foot treated, and managed only four more games to end the match.

There was no love lost between the two Russians, with Sharapova receiving a warning from the chair umpire for coaching from her father Yuri in the stands.

"He always coaches her," accused Myskina after the match.

The final will be the first meeting between Serena and Sharapova since the Russian won the Wimbledon title.

"I can't reflect back. I don't believe I played Wimbledon," said Serena in her own spin on reality. "I don't know who it was, but that was someone else."

Whoever it was Serena was dismiss and focus on her new self.

"I'm really excited about myself," said the pink ballerina. "I'm going to be definitely a force to be reckoned with next year."

Later Serena upped the self-absorption meter to 11, appearing in a t-shirt with "I Heart Me" on it.

"I love me. I love everything about me," Serena said. "I love my legs, I love my arms, I love my lips, I love my eyes. I think it's important for everyone to love themselves."

In the doubles semifinals, the Zimbabwe/Aussie duo of Cara Black/Rennae Stubbs upset top seeds Virginia Ruano Pascual/Paola Suarez 7-6(7), 6-4, and the Russian/America pair of Nadia Petrova/Meghann Shaughnessy ousted No. 2-seeded Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova/Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 6-2.