Belarusian third seed Victoria Azarenka is through to her maiden grand slam final after ousting defending champion Kim Clijsters from the Australian Open.

Azarenka, 22, defeated Belgium’s 12th seed 6-4 1-6 6-3 in two hours and 12 minutes in Thursday’s first semi-final at Melbourne Park.

The world No.3 will face the winner of Thursday’s second semi-final between Czech second seed Petra Kvitova and Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova in Saturday night’s title match.