Maria Sharapova will face Vera Zvonareva in an all-Russian final at the Qatar Open after the fourth seed beat Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday.
Unseeded Zvonareva reached her second final of the year with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over China's Li Na in the first semi-final.
Sharapova failed to find much consistency but when she hit her stride the Russian was too powerful for Radwanska, who won their previous meeting at the 2007 US Open.
"At the beginning of the match I was down a break and at that stage I was just trying to get my feet into the match," Sharapova told reporters. "I was very close to being down 3-0 and that's a tough position to be in.
"After a slow start all you want to do is get into the match and get going, and after that I think I did a good job and when things got tough in the end I maintained my focus and fought it out."
Radwanska, seeded 16, took advantage of several Sharapova errors to go 2-0 up in the first set and although the Australian Open champion broke back in the third game she needed to fight off three break points before holding for 2-2.
Three superb winning returns helped Sharapova break a second time to lead 4-3 but Radwanska continued to pressure her.
Although Sharapova broke for a 1-0 lead in the second set, she then dropped her own serve to love with a double fault. The world number five regained the lead with a break for 3-2 and a final break gave her the match.
BASELINE RALLIES
Na, who had upset third seed Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-finals, held the upper hand against Zvonareva in the first set, with her strong forehand giving her the edge in a series of fiercely contested baseline rallies.
Although Na dropped her serve in the opening game, she broke back immediately and struck a fine forehand winner to break for 5-3.
The Chinese also went up a break early in the second set, taking a 2-1 lead when Zvonareva netted a weak forehand volley but she dropped the next two games at love.
An increased number of errors allowed Zvonareva to break to lead 4-2 and in a close finish to the set the next two games went against serve before the Russian held.
Na earned the first break in the third set for a 2-0 lead. However, Zvonareva broke back in the next game against an increasingly erratic opponent and closed out the match by winning the final four games for the loss of just six points.
"It was a really tough match", said Zvonareva, who reached the Hobart final in January. "I played her a couple of times before and I lost, so it was very important for me to stay in the match even though I lost the first set.
"I just kept fighting and was staying aggressive and didn't give her a chance to dictate, and it worked out."
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