TOKYO, Sept 21: World number one Serena Williams was made to work hard to beat fellow-American Amy Frazier 7-6 6-3 to reach the final of the $585,000 Toyota Princess Cup Saturday.

There she will face Kim Clijsters after the third seed beat defending champion Jelena Dokic 5-7 6-2 6-3 in the match of the tournament so far, gaining revenge for her defeat by the Yugoslav at the same stage last year in Tokyo.

Williams dropped her serve three times, once in an error-strewn first set in which the 20-year-old was unexpectedly taken to a tie-break by Frazier, 10 years her senior and ranked 53rd in the world.

But Williams, who arrived in Tokyo fresh from beating sister Venus in the final of the U.S. Open, demonstrated why she has won three consecutive grand slam titles, storming through the tie-break 7-0.

Williams continued to struggle with her accuracy in the second set but simply had too much power for Frazier, who contributed to her own downfall with 10 double faults.

In the first semifinal, Clijsters and Dokic both had chances to win a see-saw third set decided when Dokic, who had dug herself out of a hole at 3-0 down, committed her sixth double fault to drop serve in the eighth game.

A big first serve and drive-volley from Clijsters set up three match points but she needed only one as Dokic dumped a forehand into the net from mid-court to give the Belgian victory in one hour 32 minutes.—Reuters