Top seed Shahar Peer will chase her fourth career WTA Tour title in Saturday's final of the Cellular South Cup against seventh-seeded Venus Williams.

Peer defeated American veteran Meilen Tu 6-4, 7-5 in a battle lasting 2 hrs., 2 mins. while Williams ousted 17-year-old Romanian qualifier Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-3, 6-2.

The 19-year-old Israeli, who is ranked No. 17 in the world, will be meeting Williams for the first time. The 26-year-old Williams, playing in Memphis for the first time, is trying to win her 34th career singles title, her first since Istanbul in 2005.

Williams said: "It's been a long week with lots of matches for me and I now feel comfortable on the court. I'm excited to have a chance to win the title in my first tournament back.

"In my previous matches I was good when it counted but I hadn't been the best at keeping the pressure on. I was better at that today."

Peer continued her outstanding 2007 season by reaching her first final of the year, improving her record on the season to 13-4. Peer extended eventual champion Serena Williams to 8-6 in the third set in the Australian Open quarterfinals and also reached the Gold Coast semifinals.

Tu certainly put up a better fight than her 6-3, 6-0 loss to to Tu at last month's Australian Open, and Peer said she was prepared for a tougher fight this time around.

"I knew she was playing well this tournament and in Australia I had my fans cheering for me, so I knew this would be a tougher match. I told her after the match she had some moments when I was just clapping for her winners, which seemed to come from nowhere. I had to work so hard to win points."

Tu said: "I think the difference was that she's been in this position more frequently than me and it comes down to one or two points at deuce or on ad points. She makes you go for more because she's very quick and has good defense. We both gave our hearts out there today. The better player won and that was her."