Victoria Azarenka of Belarus defeated Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 2-6 and 7-5 to reach the final of the Miami WTA hard court tennis tournament on Thursday.

In her first top tier final, the 19-year-old will meet the winner between Serena Williams and her sister Venus.

Azarenka, the junior title winner in the Australian and U.S Open in 2005, has won in Brisbane and Memphis this year and reached the semi-final at Indian Wells.

Azarenka lost her first match point with a double-fault, but downed the 23-year-old Kuznetsova later on as the Russian went long at the end of a baseline rally.

It had been a tight encounter with both players breaking twice early in the first set, and Azarenka enjoyed the upper hand with superb cross-court forehand.

"I was just trying to play every point from the beginning to the end," said Azarenka.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2009)