Australia MELBOURNE - Tennis Beauty Maria Sharapova overwhelmed one Serbian player in the semifinals and will face another for the Australian Open championship.
Sharapova followed her quarterfinal rout of No. 1-ranked Justine Henin with a 6-3, 6-1 semifinal win over third-seeded Jelena Jankovic on Thursday.
No. 4 Ana Ivanovic rallied to ensure one of the two Serbians advanced from the semifinals, despite losing the first eight games to Daniela Hantuchova.
She recovered the early break in the second set and then, after saving break points in a 10-minute game that went to deuce seven times,
got another crucial break in the third.
Hantuchova dumped a routine volley into the net on break point in the ninth game of the deciding set to give Ivanovic, who had scrambled to stay in the point, a chance to serve for the match.
Ivanovic won it 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 in 2 hours, 10 minutes when Hantuchova put a forehand into the net on match point.
Sharapova was more convincing.
Two days after ending Henin's 32-match winning streak, she outclassed Jankovic to advance to the final Saturday and a bid for her third Grand Slam singles title.
Sharapova is using the humbling 6-1, 6-2 loss to Serena Williams in last year's Australian final as motivation this time.
"You have your bad moments in your career and you have your good moments, and it's been a good ride so far," she said. "But it's not over yet.
"In a Grand Slam where I've had good success but some tough endings, I still believe at the end I'll always have more opportunities."
The 20-year-old Sharapova, who hasn't dropped a set in six matches at Melbourne Park this year, won her first major at Wimbledon in 2004, then added the U.S. Open title in 2006.
She led 5-0 in the first before Jankovic fended off three set points to hold her first game, earning a big cheer from a crowd that had been stunned by Sharapova's early domination.
She broke Sharapova in the next game, aided by a pair of double-faults from the Russian, then saved two more set points in the next game to pull within 5-3.
Sharapova, her high-pitched grunts sounding more like shrieks, pounded the ball even harder, smacking an ace to set up her sixth set point, then getting to a drop shot for a clean winner. She made up for getting only 46 percent of her first serves in during the set by hitting 20 winners to just three for Jankovic.
"I had a bit of a letdown, I was too good for my own level," Sharapova said of her first-set lapse. "But I'm really happy to get back in the final."
Sharapova broke Jankovic's serve to open the second set, when the Serbian player received treatment for an apparent back strain. Trailing 3-0, Jankovic again had treatment, laying outstretched on a towel while a physiotherapist massaged her lower back area.
"I wanted to withdraw, but it was a semifinal," Jankovic said.
The start of the match was delayed for about 10 minutes when rain began falling in the warmup, forcing organizers to close the roof at Rod Laver Arena.
Ivanovic is into her second Grand Slam final after losing the French Open decider to Henin.
She said it only the crowd that kept her in it after Hantuchova's amazing start.
"If it wasn't for you guys, I would already be booking my flight back home," she said.
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