Serena Williams overcame an early match deficit against surprise semifinalist Alize Cornet on Saturday afternoon and sent the French teen home in straight sets to reach her second career Family Circle Cup final.

Cornet, just 18 years old, followed up her semifinal from Amelia Island last week with another final four appearance on the green clay here, although she did have to work hard to make that round. Ranked No.40 and unseeded, she toughed out upsets over seeded players Michaella Krajicek and Agnes Szavay en route (the win over Szavay being her first career Top 20 win). Early in the match against the No.5-seeded Williams, she continued that momentum.

Dogged by unforced errors as Cornet's consistency game was in full flow, Williams fell behind 4-1 in the first set, with something of a letdown seemingly in progress after her much-hyped (and well-fought) quarterfinal win on Friday over the tournament's No.2 seed, Maria Sharapova. But that's when the American former world No.1 and eight-time Grand Slam singles champion came alive to steal the set from under her, reeling off six of the next seven games for a 7-5 triumph.

"At that point, I just thought I had nothing to lose," Williams said on the first set deficit. "I thought, 'All I have to do is break and hold, break and hold, and break and hold, and I'll be back in it, and so that's what I did.'"

"I was playing so well in the beginning of the first set, and I think it was a surprise for Serena because she didn't know me," Cornet said. "After 4-1, she played better. She's a great champion so it's normal, and from there I made more mistakes. The match changed at that moment. I continued to fight on every point but she was better, that's all."

The two players stayed close through much of the second set but Williams pulled away with a break in the eighth game to go up 5-3, then served the match out.

"She played well in the first and second sets; in the whole match I thought she played really well," Williams said on Cornet. "She's one person to watch going into the clay court season. If she can get this far in a big tournament like this, you have to work hard and keep an eye out for these players."

"It was a tough match for me, but aside from that I really had a lot of fun," Cornet said. "I like the Stadium court and I like the crowd. It was so nice for me, and I just tried to do my best, and I think it's what I did."

Williams improves to 40-11 lifetime in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour semifinals with the win, a 78.4 winning percentage. Even more impressive is her record in the semifinals of events at the Tier I level or higher, which now stands at 28-4 (87.5%). She will now play her second final at this event, having finished runner-up to Justine Henin in 2003. She will also try to become just the third active player to win three or more clay court events at the Tier I level or higher, having won Rome and Roland Garros in 2002 (ahead of her in that stat are Henin with nine and Amelie Mauresmo with four).