Venus through to Japan Open final

TOKYO, Japan -- Venus Williams will face 24-year-old French woman Virginie Razzano in the final of the Japan Open as she bids to follow up last weekend's Korea Open triumph.

Top seed Williams overcame Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 7-5.

Fifth seed Razzano defeated eighth seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy 4-6 7-5 6-3.

"It feels good, it's great to be in the finals," Williams said.

"I was like, 'Can I do this? Is it possible?" But it is, so it's exciting."

After losing the first four games in a row and eventually the set, Wozniacki went ahead 2-0 in the second set and then 4-2, taking advantage of Williams' two double faults in the sixth game.

But the American steadied herself to make it 5-5 -- thanks to a questionable line-call -- before winning the last three games in a row to finish off the 97-minute match.

"Four-two is definitely not the set, it's just one break, so winning one game is always pretty much even," said Williams.

"I was trying to win one game at one time. I was very confident. I was trying to focus on making less errors," she said.

The 17-year-old Wozniacki said she couldn't cope with Williams once she returned to form in the second set.

"Venus played really well, she just smashed winners in the corners, so I couldn't do anything," she said.

"I was trying to keep my tactics, just tried to make her run, but at 4-2 she really raised her game until four-all and she just did a lot of winners, so I couldn't really do anything.

"It's tough to break her serve even though I broker her serve three times in the match," said Wozniacki.

Razzano, from Nimes, won her first WTA title in Guanzhou last Sunday. She was second seed in that event, which featured no-one in the world's top 30.

She will compete in the Beijing Olympic tournament next year.

In the men's competition former world number one Lleyton Hewitt crashed out to Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 7-6 7-6.

After fourth seed Hewitt had succumbed to the seventh seed he said: "It's tough to say why I lost because actually I was the one who had break points, four break points, in the match and I didn't fight against a break point on my serve the whole match.

"I felt like I was better for the whole match. And I lost the match."

Karlovic hit 25 service aces against Hewitt's nine.

In the semifinals Karlovic will come up against top seed David Ferrer, who defeated fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3 7-5.

In the other semifinal, in form French third seed Richard Gasquet will play second seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

Gasquet, who won the Mumbai Open at the weekend, thrashed Israel's Dudi Sela 6-4 6-1, while Berdych edged through againsdt eighth seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 7-6 4-6 7-5. E-mail to a friend