Uzbekistan's Iroda Tulyaganova and unseeded Sun Tiantian of China will meet in the final of the Tashkent Open on Sunday.
In Saturday's semi-finals, Tulyaganova, a wildcard entry and champion in 2000, defeated No 6 seed Olga Poutchkova 6-4, 6-0 while Sun ended the fine run of 17-year-old Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, winning 7-5, 6-4.
The final will mark a remarkable comeback for the 24-year old Tulyaganova, who was ranked 16 in June 2002 but faded away after surgery for a right elbow injury later that year.
Her two previous attempts at a comeback in this tournament, last year and in 2004, ended in second-round defeats, for which lack of fitness was more responsible than anything else.
This year she was better prepared, winning the Asian Championships last month and following it up with a semi-final showing at the WTA event in Kolkata, where she incidentally lost to Poutchkova.
Tulyaganova has not played Sun before. The Chinese girl, who turns 25 next week, is playing her first Tour singles final but has nine doubles titles to her credit, (all partnering Li Ting), three of them won this year, including one at Guangzhou last week.
She is also the Olympic doubles gold-medallist, (again with Li) and is not likely to be overawed on the occasion of her first final appearance.
As Tulyaganova said after her semi-final victory, "If she (Sun) has reached the final, she's a good play. For sure, it will not be an easy match tomorrow."
