Belgium's Kim Clijsters maintained her bid for a fourth U.S. hard court title of the season with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4 victory over Italy's Francesca Schiavone to ease into the Los Angles Open final on Saturday.
On Sunday, the fifth-seeded Clijsters will line up against Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, who reached her first final in more than a year with a 6-3, 6-4 upset of Russian third seed Elena Dementieva.
Clijsters improved her 2005 record on American hard courts to 24-1 by frustrating the Italian with her dogged retrieving and hard, well placed groundstrokes.
Despite delighting the crowd with her stylish play and loud yells, Schiavone was unable to offer enough variation to keep Clijsters at bay.
"It was a lot of fun," said Clijsters, who has already picked up titles at Indian Wells, Miami and Stanford this year.
"She's a great athlete, moves well and entertains the crowd. But on her higher balls, I was able to attack with my forehand and made her go for more than she wanted to."
Dementieva, who held a 6-2 record against Hantuchova before their match, praised the ninth seeded Slovakian on her assured performance.
"She moved me around very well and I was playing defensive all the time," the Russian said.
"She mixed up her serve and I couldn't break her."
The 22-year-old Hantuchova cracked 20 winners and won 85 percent of her first serve points.
"I've played some tough matches against her in the past and have felt close to beating her," she said.
"I tried to step it up, go for my shots and be a little smarter. I'm really happy to get through to the final."
Hantuchova, who last reached a final in Birmingham in 2004, said her new fitness regime was paying off.
"I've really been working on my movement," she said.
"That makes a lot of difference.
"When I was under pressure I managed to hang in the points and it gave me a lot of confidence because I didn't need to go for my shots so quickly."
