Halep to meet Wozniacki in Australian Open final

World number one Simona Halep quelled a tenacious Angelique Kerber fightback and saved two match points to reach her first Australian Open final with a 6-3 4-6 9-7 victory in a compelling scrap on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.

A wildly unpredictable match veered one way, then the other, before Halep finally broke Kerber's resistance to claim victory on her fourth match point when her exhausted opponent fired a backhand over the baseline.

When Halep won the first five games it seemed the expected battle royal between two of the game's most ferocious competitors would turn into a damp squib.

But Kerber roared back and had two match points at 6-5 in a brutal deciding set before Halep turned it around with some brave hitting to seal victory in two hours and 20 minutes.

The 26-year-old faces Caroline Wozniacki in Saturday's final when both players will be gunning for their first grand slam title and the world number one ranking.

Wozniacki reaches Australian Open final for first time

Wozniacki came through a late bout of nerves to reach her first Australian Open final with a 6-3 7-6(2) victory over Belgian Elise Mertens on Thursday, giving herself another shot at winning a maiden grand slam title.

The Dane had dominated her second Melbourne Park semi-final until she was 5-4, 30-0 up and serving for the match, but suddenly faltered with a pair of double faults to allow her 22-year-old opponent back into the contest.

Mertens, playing only her fifth grand slam, took full advantage and, unleashing a string of winners, broke the former world number one and racked up two set points.

Unlike in her 2011 semi-final against China's Li Na, when she blew a match point, Wozniacki was able to recover her composure and saved them both on the back of a couple of booming serves.

After four deuces, the 27-year-old held with a thumping forehand then raced away with the ensuing tiebreak to seal a title-decider against Halep.

"I got really tired at 5-4," she said on court. "After the two first good serves, I thought, 'Calm down, it's all good,' then it kind of wasn't good any more."

"I felt like my legs were shaking a little bit. I was like okay 'This is not normal, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now,' I just took a few deep breaths and once she had set point, I said, 'Well, I guess it is the third set. I guess now you just need to go for it.'"

"[The 2011 match] was definitely on my mind out there today – Li Na. I tried to stay calm and I was lucky to get a win."

Wozniacki has yet to win a grand slam title despite spending 67 weeks as world number one and is the only player to have won more than 25 WTA titles without claiming a major title.

She lost six successive tour finals in 2017 but showed a more aggressive edge to her game when she saved two match points to battle back from 5-1 down in the third set to win her second round match against Jana Fett last week.

Victory over Halep on Saturday would take her back to the top of the world rankings but, having lost both her previous grand slam finals at the US Open, clearly finally landing a major title would mean far more.

"That is a nice thing about being first on," she said.

"You win, you can relax and you can see the other ones play it out and obviously they are both amazing players, incredible fighters and athletes. It is going to be really difficult, but I'm in the finals and at that point it's the last match."