Serena Williams battles past Simona Halep to reach Miami Open final

An erratic Serena Williams was made to fight hard for her win by Simona Halep in the semi-final at Miami Open.

In stark contrast to their two previous encounters, which had been lopsided contests, the semi-final at the Miami Open on Thursday was a high-octane clash that went down all the way to the wire. Serena prevailed over Halep to win the match 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.

At the WTA tour finals last year, Halep had coasted to a facile win, 6-0, 6-2 before being paid back in the same coin later in the tournament by Serena who beat her 6-3, 6-0. Thursday’s match, however, saw both players determined to set the record straight as they dragged the match on to an exciting third set, where Serena held her nerves to close out the match.

Serena smashed 38 winners to Halep’s 10, but also had as many as 45 unforced errors against her name.

"I made so many errors and I was like 'Serena, just come to the net at this point, because that's the only thing that was working for me,'" Williams said. "I'm just really happy to get through that. It was actually a really fun match and I was able to come out and play here tonight."

"Keep trying, that's all I could do. I never gave up”, she added.

Serena will now face Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in the final.

Unlike Williams, who was made to sweat to book her final berth, the 12th seeded Navarro had little trouble in getting past Andrea Petkovic. Navarro beat Petkovic 6-3, 6-3 to assure herself of a spot in the WTA top 10 ranking, regardless of the result in the final.

"It's a really important tournament for me," said Suarez Navarro, the first Spanish woman to make the final at Key Biscayne since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1993. "I just practice all day, all the time during the offseason to play in a final like this."

Serena has a 4-0 record against Navarro and will look maintain the clean slate, when she locks horns with the Spaniard in the final.