FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- Martina Hingis last week gave Richard Williams the autographed shirt he had been seeking. Tonight, she denied him and his daughters their long-time dream of an all-Williams U.S. Open women's final.

After seventh seed Serena Williams dethroned defending champion and fellow American Lindsay Davenport, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, in today's first semifinal, Hingis, the top seed and No. 1 player in the world, ousted third seed Venus Williams, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

Hingis, who was down a break in the final set, won the final four games of the match to earn a berth in her third straight U.S. Open final. The 18-year-old from Switzerland, the 1999 Australian Open champion and runner-up at this year's French Open, will be trying for her sixth Grand Slam singles title Saturday.

Had Venus Williams prevailed, Saturday's final would have been the first Grand Slam final between sisters since Maud Watson defeated Lilian Watson for the 1894 Wimbledon title.

"It feels great, but I have one more round to win," said Serena Williams, who will try to avenge her sister's defeat Saturday afternoon. "The tournament isn't over yet. I don't want my tournament to end here. If it does, it's great, but I want to keep going on."

For a while, it looked like Serena's Williams' opponent would be her older sister.

After nearly being run off the court in the opening set, Venus Williams settled down and broke Hingis four times on her way to winning the second set and evening the match. She went up a break early in the final set, but struggled with her serve and cramping in the latter stages of the match.

On serve at 3-4 in the final set, Venus Williams' hopes were dashed by a pair of costly double faults. The first resulted from a second serve foot fault. The second came on break point and gave Hingis a 5-3 advantage.

After the game, Venus Williams called for a trainer and received treatment for cramping. While her movement was hampered, Hingis was in full gear. Hingis hustled from deep behind the baseline to rip a backhand winner down the line off a short ball to set up match point. She closed out the two-hour, one-minute match on the next point as Venus Williams sent a service return long.

Hingis improved to 8-3 lifetime against Venus Williams and improved her summer hardcourt record to 21-1.

A lucky break and a strong resolve propelled Serena Williams to victory in her first Grand Slam semifinal. She recorded the only break of serve in the third set when a mis-hit service return barely cleared the net. Davenport, the second seed, raced in, but her desperate backhand effort sailed long to give Serena Williams a 4-3 lead.

"After 17 years, I say I deserve a break once in a while," Serena Williams joked.

She left the door open in her next service game, but survived three double faults and five break points to solidify her lead at 5-3.

"I felt that if I won that game, I would have a great chance of winning the match because all I had to do was hold serve," Serena Williams said. "I felt if Lindsay won the game, I would have to fight. I was never going to give up."

"Every break point I had, she just hit a huge, huge first serve," Davenport said. "I never got a second serve. I never got a serve, I think, slower than 105 miles per hour. She just played those points really tough."

Davenport, who faced two match points in her quarterfinal victory over fifth seed Mary Pierce, dodged another in the following game. Her volley winner prevented Serena Williams from closing out the match and Davenport managed to hold, forcing the 17-year-old to serve for the match.

Serena Williams showed little sign of nerves as she overpowered Davenport with two serves and fired an ace to set up her second match point. She followed in the footsteps of her sister, who made the U.S. Open final in 1997 at the age of 17, when Davenport's backhand return was wide on the next point, ending the one-hour, 52-minute match.

"I had some chances, but didn't take advantage of the ones I had," Davenport said. "The other day it went for me. Today it went against me."

The victory was Serena Williams' third in four career meetings with Davenport.

Heavy rain delayed play for more than five hours today and the long delay seemed to have an effect on both players. Both struggled with their first serve and groundstrokes and each made far more unforced errors than winners.

"It affects everyone's preparation when the rain comes," Davenport said. "I was ready to go. You always like to go according to plan, but you have to be flexible sometimes. I don't think it was too big a factor."

Serena Williams broke Davenport in the 10th game of the match to take the opening set. Davenport, who fought off five break points in her two previous service games, made 18 unforced errors in the set.

The second set was a different story. Davenport, the reigning Wimbledon champion, began to dictate play with her groundstrokes and Williams struggled to keep the ball in the court. Davenport broke in the opening game of the set and twice more to even the match, winning 15 of the final 17 points.

Rain also delayed the start of the men's doubles final and forced the match to be moved from Arthur Ashe Stadium to Louis Armstrong Stadium.

But the location made no difference to the 11th-seeded team of American Alex O'Brien and Canada's Sebastien Lareau. They defeated the top-seeded Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, for their first Grand Slam doubles title.

Paes and Bhupathi were gunning for their third Grand Slam doubles title of 1999. After losing in the finals at the Australian Open, they captured titles at the French Open and Wimbledon. Bhupathi added another crown to his collection Thursday when he teamed with Ai Sugiyama of Japan to win the U.S. Open mixed doubles title.

Venus and Serena Williams remain alive in women's doubles. They have reached the semifinals and next will face the team of Pierce and Schett Saturday evening. The Williams sisters are seeded fifth, and Pierce and Schett are the 12th-seeded team. The winner will face the unseeded duo of American Chanda Rubin and Sandrine Testud of France in Sunday's final.