Awesome Ivanovic in

The seventh seed showed no signs of big match nerves to dominate her more experienced Russian opponent from start to finish.

Sharapova was playing in her first Roland Garros semi-final but her ninth Grand Slam last-four match in total, however, perhaps suffering from her long-standing shoulder injury, she couldn't even come close to the top level of her game.

Ivanovic's deep, aggressive groundstrokes caused Sharapova problems right from the off and helped her break in the second game of the match.

The 19-year-old Serb was also looking far more secure on her own serve too, while Sharapova hit four double faults in the first set alone, including one on the point that handed Ivanovic the set.

It was a third break of serve from Ivanovic that clinched that opener, with her only blip in the set coming in an erratic game when she tried to serve out the set while leading 5-1.

Sharapova was hitting a series of unforced errors especially on her forehand and that again left her in a hole early in the second set as she quickly went 3-0 down.

The following game then proved to be the decisive one - as the second seed had a number of game points to get on the board.

However, she couldn't take any of them as she was hamstrung by error after error, before a double fault gave Ivanovic her fifth break point of the match, which the Serb took - to leave Ivanovic with perfect five for five break point stats.

The only question at that stage was whether Ivanovic's nerve would hold out, but that was never in any doubt as two solid holds gave her the match.

She even finished out in style as she clinched her final spot with an ace to win the final game to love.

"I'm really happy that I took all of my opportunities, I was obviously a little bit nervous, but I knew I had to be as aggressive as I could," Ivanovic said courtside after the match.

Seán Fay