Russia's Nadia Petrova muscled her way into the final of the Stuttgart Grand Prix with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus on Saturday.
Petrova, the 2006 Stuttgart champion, caught Azarenka cold at the start of the match, building a 4-0 lead before her opponent fought back.
Azarenka recovered one of those breaks and had Petrova under pressure again in her next service game only for two huge aces to get the Russian out of trouble.
After an exchange of breaks, Petrova took control of the second set when she moved 4-3 up with serve and that advantage proved enough to carry her to victory in 90 minutes.
Petrova will face the winner of the second semi-final between second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and American sixth seed Venus Williams.
