Russia's Nadia Petrova overcame a groin injury to reach her first Kremlin Cup final with a 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 win over Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova in Moscow on Saturday.
In Sunday's final the world number five, who is gunning for her sixth title of the year, will face unseeded Anna Chakvetadze, who upset fourth seed Elena Dementieva 7-5, 3-6, 6-0 in the all-Russian second semi-final.
The men's final will also be an all-Russian affair, pitting top seed Nikolay Davydenko against his Davis Cup team mate Marat Safin.
Davydenko, who won here in 2004, eliminated seventh-seeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-1 to move a step closer to securing a place in next month's season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.
Former world number one Safin overpowered Russian wild card Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-3 in one hour 15 minutes.
Petrova, who has been playing with a heavily-strapped left thigh for the entire week, raced through her first set in 36 minutes but asked for a medical time-out to treat her right leg early in the second.
The injury hampered the fifth seed's mobility as the 17-year-old Vaidisova, who beat top seed and world number one Amelie Mauresmo in Friday's quarter-finals, regained her composure to level the match.
GIVEN PAINKILLERS
The tall Petrova, coming off an impressive victory at the Stuttgart Grand Prix last week, found some reserves in the third set.
"I had a problem with my left leg in yesterday's match and I was worried that I couldn't fully recover for this match," said Petrova, who has struggled with various injuries this year.
"Then, in the second set I injured my right leg. I had so much pain I wasn't sure I would finish the match. I was given painkillers to continue and it enabled me to regain some of my strength in the third set."
Petrova wasted six match points in the 10th game of the final set before finally prevailing 7-3 in the tiebreaker after nearly two-and-a-half hours.
"I had similar problems in the Stuttgart final but I was able to pull through then. And today I tried not to think about losing because I really wanted to play in the final in front of my home fans," said the 24-year-old Muscovite, who had reached the quarter-finals only once in six previous appearances here.
Vaidisova, who was making her Kremlin Cup debut, was satisfied with her showing in the Russian capital.
"I certainly had my chances today especially in the third set which could have gone either way," the eighth seed told reporters.
Chakvetadze, 19, will also be playing in her first final after completely dominating the more experienced Dementieva in the third set.
She reached the last four without hitting a ball after US Open champion and second seed Maria Sharapova pulled out with a foot injury on Friday.
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