Bangalore: Serena Williams beat her elder sister Venus on Saturday to win a place in the Bangalore Open final against Swiss Patty Schnyder.
World No. 11 Serena beat Venus, the No. 7, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 in a thrilling semi-final lasting two hours 10 minutes after fourth seed Schnyder had dispatched China's Yan Zi 6-3, 6-4.
The American sisters, who have won 14 Grand Slam singles titles between them, were meeting for the first time since the 2005 US Open fourth round.
"It was definitely hard fought. I need to get refocused in quick time," third seed Serena said.
"It's probably one of our closest matches. Neither one of us was playing our best tennis."
Serena broke second seed Venus in the fifth and ninth games to win the opening set.
Venus came back strongly to win the second but Serena took the deciding tiebreak 7-4 after each had wasted a match point earlier in the third set.
"I was really upset I didn't take the opportunity on my first match point and was lucky Venus did not either," Serena said.
"I was happy I took it to the tiebreak." Venus said her sister always raised her game against her.
"She always plays really tough, really challenging," she said.
"She hit some serves that I really couldn't return."
Serena now leads their head-to-head series 8-7.
Schnyder broke Yan, who stunned top seed Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-finals, in the fifth and ninth games to wrap up the first set.
World No. 54 Yan staged a recovery in the second before Schnyder broke twice more to seal victory.
"Except my first serves, everything worked well today," said Schnyder.
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