Serena Williams sets up Dementieva final

By Gennady Fyodorov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Serena Williams overpowered top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 6-1 to reach her first Kremlin Cup final on Saturday.

The fourth-seeded American will play another Russian, Elena Dementieva who crushed compatriot Dinara Safina 6-1 6-0, in Sunday's final.

In the men's draw, top seed and defending champion Nikolay Davydenko reached his first final of the year after seeing off unseeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 6-1.

On Sunday, the Russian world number four will face fourth-seeded Frenchman and 2002 winner Paul-Henri Mathieu, who overcame 72nd-ranked German Michael Berrer, playing in his first career semi-final on the ATP Tour, 7-5 6-3.

After a tight opening set, Williams eased through a tiebreaker 7-2 and it was one-way traffic thereafter.

The former world number one broke a nervy-looking Kuznetsova twice in the second set, which lasted a mere 28 minutes, to cruise to her third final of the year.

"It definitely wasn't an easy win," said Williams, who is making her second appearance in Moscow, 10 years after her debut when she lost in the first round as a 16-year-old ranked number 448 in the world.

"But I had a lot of fun out there. I was playing a Russian in Russia with all the crowd rooting for her, so I didn't have any pressure to win. I was really enjoying it."