MIAMI: Venus Williams swept past France’s Marion Bartoli on Thursday to reach the final of the Sony Ericsson Open, where she’ll face Kim Clijsters of Belgium.

Williams downed Bartoli 6-3, 6-4, notching her 15th straight victory in her current hot streak. Clijsters, the 2005 Miami champion, needed four match points to put away fellow Belgian Justine Henin 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (8/6). The battle was the second this year between two players who have come out of retirement.

In the men’s quarter-finals, Roland Garros runner-up Robin Soderling and giant-killer Tomas Berdych lined up a semi-final showdown. Soderling, the fifth-seeded Swede, broke Russian Mikhail Youzhny six times in a 6-1, 6-4 victory, dropping only five points on his first serve.

In Berdych he’ll meet a player who managed to build on the momentum of his fourth-round upset of world No 1 Roger Federer. Berdych rallied for a gritty 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 victory over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. The match was a contrast to their clash at Indian Wells, where Berdych made short work of Verdasco. Berdych admitted his marathon win over Federer had left him with a bit of a hangover — that he was able to shake off in time. The other men’s semi-final has already been set, between Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick.