Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina reached another major final as she beat two-time winner Victoria Azarenka in the Australian Open semi-finals.
Rybakina, 23, won 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to end Azarenka’s hopes of winning the title 10 years after her last triumph.
The Kazakh regained her composure in a nervy end to the first set before confidently dominating the second.
She will play either Belarusian fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka or unseeded Pole Magda Linette in Saturday’s final.
The pair will follow Rybakina and Azarenka on to court in Thursday’s second semi-final at Melbourne Park.
“I’m super happy to be in the final and play one more time here,” said 22nd seed Rybakina, who will contest her second major final.
“It was different conditions, I couldn’t play aggressive tennis and couldn’t go so much for my shots but I was happy to win.
“I got a lot of experience from Wimbledon and I want to come on court [for the final] and enjoy the moment.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s Alfie Hewett will contest two Australian Open finals after winning his semi-finals in both the wheelchair singles and doubles.
Hewett, the world number one in singles, defeated Japan’s Takuya Miki 6-1 6-1 to reach his third successive singles final in Melbourne. He and fellow Briton Gordon Reid then beat Daisuke Arai and Takashi Sanada, also of Japan, 6-4 6-4 in the doubles.
Hewett and Reid are chasing a fourth successive doubles title in Melbourne. The second seeds will face Dutch duo Maikel Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren in the final.
Hewett will take on 16-year-old Tokito Oda of Japan for the singles title as he seeks a maiden crown at Melbourne Park. The 25-year-old is a six-time Grand Slam singles champion - having won three apiece at the French Open and the US Open - but lost the past two Australian Open finals.
Fellow Briton Lucy Shuker could not follow them into qualifying for a final, as she and American partner Dana Mathewson lost 6-2 6-1 in the women’s wheelchair doubles semi-finals to Dutch top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot.
