World No. 1 Serena Williams defeated Caroline Wozniacki 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to advance into the finals of the Western and Southern Open on Saturday.

Despite committing a lot of errors, Williams overcame Wozniacki in a match that lasted an hour and 42 minutes.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion Williams made 41 unforced errors and 36 winners. The 24-year-old Wozniacki, on the other hand, committed 23, eight of those coming from double faults.

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"I missed a lot but at least I was connecting," said Williams.

The 32-year-old Williams relied on her big serves to topple Wozniacki.

"Yeah, just had to go for rockets," Williams said. "It started working for me."

In the other semifinals match, ninth-seeded Ana Ivanovic got off to a blazing start in her match against fifth-seed Maria Sharapova as she broke the French Open champion twice to win, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5.

The five-time Grand Slam champ came back on the second set, after an opportunity for a break at 5-all.

Both Ivanovic and Sharapova kept the third set close. With five matches apiece, Sharapova committed an error, which Ivanovic took advantage as she marched onto the finals.

The 26-year-old Ivanovic upset Williams in three sets to advance to the quarterfinals of the recent Australian Open.

The Bank of the West Classics winner Williams seeks her first W&S title after losing last year's crown to Victoria Azarenka, who pulled out of the tournament because of an injury in her right knee that she sustained in Montreal last week.

Williams has not reached the quarter-finals of any of the three Grand Slam tournaments this year and hopes to defend her U.S. Open cup in Flushing Meadows this coming Aug. 25.

Tagsserena williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic, tennis