Serena Williams hopes to have only one opponent - Lindsay Davenport - in Saturday's Australian Open final, rather than the two she battled in her semi-final.

Tormented by errors early in her match against Russian Maria Sharapova, Williams scraped into her second Open final after one of the biggest scares of her career.

In a replay of last year's Wimbledon final, the American swatted away three match points before closing out the clash in three strenuous sets - 2-6 7-5 8-6.

Davenport outlasted gallant Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy to also win in three sets - 2-6 7-6 6-4.

In the opening set, Williams, the 2003 Australian champion, ballooned ball after ball over the baseline against the stern Russian defence which refused to crack.

"I think I was battling Maria and myself," Williams said later.

"I was playing two opponents because I was making a tremendous amount of errors.

"I wasn't doing what I had practised but I just tried to stay positive out there the whole time," she said.

"Yesterday I felt that I was practising well, I was really feeling my shots and I was really feeling my balls.

"Even in the first set I was just making all these errors but I'm thinking, I'm not practising like this - it's going to have to come together," she said.

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