Melbourne, Jan 29 : Second seed Serena Williams gained entry to her third consecutive Grand Slam final, beating Elena Dementieva in straight sets at the final of the Australian Open on Thursday.

Williams, aiming for her fourth title at Melbourne and her 10th major championship, essayed a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over the fourth- seeded Russian and will now face either third seed Dinara Safina or seventh seed Vera Zvonareva.

Williams has won nine Slam singles titles and is likely to win a 10th on Saturday night, The Australian reported.

Dementieva might have won the last three meetings against Williams, the most recent being the semi-finals in Sydney two weeks ago, but her serve let her down this time.

The 27 year-old served eight double-faults many on break points to Williams'. On top of that Williams served 10 aces to Dementieva's three.

The ferocity of the ground strokes both women produced showed up in the fact that Williams fell over in the fifth game of the second set and Dementieva's visor came flying off during a rally three games later.

But once Williams claimed it on her first match point, she turned to player's box-containing mother Oracene Price and sister Venus and bounced up and down.

"I haven't moved like that in a while so I'm a bit shocked myself," said Williams. (ANI)