Comeback-Queen Kim Clijsters put an end to Serena Williams 12 match winning streak in New York amidst high-voltage drama in the semifinals of the 2009 US Open to earn the championship match at Flushing Meadows.

Clijsters made an impressive start to the match and grabbed an early break for a 3-1 lead. Serena bounced right back and levelled the match at 3-3. As the lengthy rallies came along, Clijsters kept extracting errors off Williams' groundstrokes and as the three time champion got a call for foot fault at 4-5, she lost her composure and lost the set, eventually slamming her racquet to get first of the warnings in the match.

The second set saw Serena fight back in usual fahsion as she fired three aces in a single game to avoid a break and stay abreast with the Belgian. Although as the set approached the finish, Serena served to stay in the match at 5-6. While serving at 15-30, she was again called for a foot fault by the same linesperson and that led Serena to engage herself in a heated on-court argument with the lines official. The drama unfolded when the linesperson was called by the chair umpire to get a brief about the situation and as she complained against Williams' alleged misbehaviour, the tournament referee wasted little time in applying a point penalty against Williams to put an end to a late-night drama on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“She was called for a foot fault, and a point later, she said something to a line umpire, and it was reported to the chair, and that resulted in a point penalty,” tournament referee Brian Earley said. “And it just happened that point penalty was match point. It was a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.”

“I used to have a real temper, and I’ve gotten a lot better,” Williams later revealed. “So I know you don’t believe me, but I used to be worse. Yes, yes, indeed.”

Soon afterwards, Williams crossed the net to congratulate Clijsters and left the court. Clijsters, on the other hand, found it pretty hard to express her elation over the 6-4, 7-5 victory. But as the reality set in, Clijsters was all jubilation as she became only the third woman to beat both Serena and Venus Williams in the same Grand Slam event. Incidentally, the last woman to achieve the feat was another Belgian Justine Henin, who beat both sisters at the same venue two years ago ( the third woman being Martina Hingis at the 2001 Australian Open ).

Clijsters will now meet Danish star Caroline Wozniacki who reached the biggest final of her career with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Belgian Yanina Wickmayer. Interestingly , Wozniacki leads the tour with most number of wins this season.

After the win, Wozniacki covered her face in disbelief as she became the first Danish woman to reach a Grand Slam final.