TENNIS: Serena Williams came back from the brink of defeat to book a semi-final clash with Russian Elena Dementieva at the Australian Open.
Svetlana Kuznetsova served for the match at 5-4 in the second set against Williams, but the title favourite battled back to grind out a 5-7 7-5 6-1 win in Melbourne today.
The match began in intense heat with temperatures hitting 40 degrees Celsius and Kuznetsova, the eighth seed, looked the better player in the opening set with Williams looking far from comfortable in the conditions.
However, the momentum shifted when the Rod Laver Arena roof was closed due to the implementation of the extreme heat policy and Williams returned to court to complete a come-from-behind win.
Kuznetsova was visibly annoyed when told the players would need to leave the court at the end of the first set and afterwards hit out at the decision to close the roof.
"Yeah, I was definitely angry,'' she said. "Why should I not be? The game was going my way.
"I'm fine playing with the roof open. I think the guys yesterday had the same weather. Everybody was playing with the roof open. Why today did they have to close it? I didn't get it, that was why I was angry.
"It's two different games. One you play inside, one you play outside. She has a big serve. She was using it well when the roof was closed. I guess it was in her favour very much.
"Serena was tough. She's playing great and I give her credit. But I don't get this rule.''
Williams described playing in the heat as like having an out-of-body experience.
"I felt I was watching someone play in a blue dress, and it wasn't me, because it was so hot out there,'' she said.
"It's really encouraging (to reach the semis) because this whole tournament I felt I've been off and I haven't been playing my best."
Earlier Dementieva had eased into the semi-finals - and then hit out at tournament officials for not closing the roof sooner.
After her 6-2 6-2 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro, the Russian expressed surprise that the roof had not been closed prior to the start of the day's play.
She said: "I'm really surprised because when you see the forecast it's going to be 41 today, 43 tomorrow, the hottest week in a month, why not close the roof?
"I had some pretty hot days in Sydney playing in my last tournament. But I think if you have a roof why not use it?
"The sun was pretty strong. Usually when you play at 11am it's not that strong but today it was a very dangerous sun and very strong."
Dementieva struggled with her serve throughout the game, serving 10 double faults - four of those in the epic sixth game of the first set that went through 11 deuces.
However, Suarez Navarro, who had beaten Venus Williams earlier in the tournament, was not at her best either and saw her impressive run come to an end.
Dementieva and Williams will now clash in tomorrow's semis.
They recently met in Sydney with Dementieva sweeping to a 6-3 6-1 victory. Significantly that came a day after Williams had struggled to a three-set win. It was also Dementieva's third straight victory over Williams.