Venus Williams survived a scare before seeing off Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 7-5 to reach the Japan Open final on Friday.

The Wimbledon champion faces fifth seed Virginie Razzano in the Tokyo final after the Frenchwoman’s battling 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Italian Flavia Pennetta.

Former world number one Williams fought back from 4-2 down in the second set with some blistering shots too hot for her 17-year-old opponent to handle.

Williams broke for a 6-5 lead with a backhand drive-volley and promptly closed out proceedings with a booming first serve after one hour and 38 minutes.

Williams will be aiming to clinch her 37th career title in Saturday’s final.

Razzano had to dig deep against Pennetta and was helped by a string of errors from the eighth seed in the deciding set.

In men’s action, top seed David Ferrer advanced to the semifinals after a 6-4, 6-4 win over fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

Ferrer, the US Open semifinalist, will take on towering Croatian Ivo Karlovic next after the seventh seed outmuscled former champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 7-6, 7-6.

Henin enters semis
Justine Henin beat unseeded Russian Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-4 to enter the semi-final of the Stuttgart Grand Prix, adds Reuters.

Henin next faces the third-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic, after an injury to Nadia Petrova forced the defending champion to retire in the second set of their quarterfinal.

Unseeded Tatiana Golovin of France was the first player through to the semis at the $650,000 indoor tournament after defeating Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-3, 6-4.