Serena Williams reached her third consecutive final and won her 14th straight match when she beat Alize Cornet of France 7-5, 6-3 at the Family Circle Cup today. In tomorrow's final, she faces the winner of an all-Russian semifinal between No. 4 Elena Dementieva and No. 9 Vera Zvonareva. Fifth-seeded Williams rallied from 4-1 down against the unseeded Cornet in the semifinals.
Williams broke Cornet twice at love before taking the set. In a second set featuring long baseline rallies, Williams broke Cornet in the eighth game, then held serve at love to take the match. "In just the whole match I thought she played really well, and I just wasn't playing my game," Williams said. Cornet, an 18-year-old ranked No. 40, also made the semifinals at Amelia Island last week. (More tennis stories.)