by Kelvin Goodchild

Who’s the favourite to win the women’s title at the 2011 Australian Open?

The answer to that question probably depends on who you are and where you come from.

The bookies favourite is Kim Clijsters; she’s been there, done that and bought the T-shirt having won three US Open titles. And, the 27-year-old is the only one of the last four to have won a grand slam.

The Belgian might be all smiles when chatting about babies and low-flying jet planes during her on-court informal interviews with Australian doubles legend Todd Woodbridge, but has been the epitome of professionalism and seriousness come game time.

She has encountered little resistance on her way to today’s semi-final rendezvous with Russian number two seed, Vera Zvonareva.

The pair met in last year’s US Open final, which Clijsters won, with Zvonareva getting her own back by beating the current world number three at the WTA Championships in Doha in October. Clijsters holds the edge in head-to-head- battles 6-3 although out of the four times they met last year Zvonareva won three of the clashes.

The highlight of Clijster’s tournament so far was her 6-0, 6-0 win over former world number one Dinara Safina, making her the first player ever—man or woman—to defeat a former top ranked player by a "double bagel" 6-0, 6-0 at a Grand Slam tournament since the start of the Open Era.

Since then she has continued to win all her matches without dropping a set or having to show much agression and attacking nouse.

Now it is time for the real games to begin and Clijsters knows that she will have to step it up from here to overcome first Zvonareva and then win the final whoever that may be against.

‘Everything has to be better. I mean, serving, returning, the unforced errors. Everything has to be better.

‘But, you know, I'm in the semi-finals and you know, I don't feel like I've played my best tennis probably. So it's a good thing. I feel that I'm hanging in there, working hard, you know, to win my points. Sometimes that's probably even more of an achievement than winning your matches very easily.’

Zvonareva hasn’t had it too tough yet either, though she did drop a set in the second round against Bojana Jovanovski.

The stunning 26-year-old looks to have improved each round and she could be peaking at just the right time heading into the battle of the big names with Clijsters.

‘I have to make sure I prepare myself well for the match, I don't over train, I stay fresh, stay focused on that match.

‘I haven't thought about it yet, but I definitely will try to take positives from those matches when I beat her and try to think over again, okay, why I lost so quickly in the final, just try to avoid those moments. Like I always do, keep trying to do my best.’

Her ranking has been on the rise ever since she came back more focused from an injury sustained at the Moorilla Hobart International in Hobart, Australia, in 2008.

‘You know, I think I started looking at things a bit differently. I started thinking, Okay, you can get injured any moment. Your career can be over. You got to try your best every day. Since that, I think that tournament turned things around a lot for me.

‘Something changed. I'm just trying to take the best out of each day, out of each match. I think by that time I already got a bit more experience. And overall all of those things, they helped a lot.’

The Russian woman reached the final of both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2010 and is stronger mentally for those experiences.

‘Definitely those experiences definitely helped me a lot, you know. And I think I'm even more mature, even more experienced because of that right now. Just trying to use it to my advantage, try to think about certain things that I already experienced in the past. You just learn from it and deal with it much better.’

Today’s other semi-final is the mouth watering tie between world number one and top seed Caroline Wozniacki , and the top ranked Chinese player Li Na.

Having appeared in two grand slam finals already including last year’s Australian Open, Li Na will be endeavouring to become the first Chinese women to make a grand slam singles final.

With both Wozniacki and Li Na of similar ilk in terms of playing style – counter punchers who prey on oppositions mistakes – one of these two will have to step out of their comfort zone and take the game to the girl on the other side of the net.

In fact, the same goes for Zvonareva and Clijsters; no fear to be shown, no nervousness to be submitted to, games to be mixed up, and attack and aggression the watch words.