Sharapova into final

Sharapova - who has reached only one grand slam final before when she beat Serena Williams to take the Wimbledon title in 2004 - capitalised on an error strewn display by Mauresmo to set up a meeting with Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final.

"I'm not done yet," Sharapova said after the semi-final.

"(At the end of the second set) I went to change, I just thought, it's alright, it's one set all, you haven't lost the match yet, and I just kept going.

"I am thrilled to be in the final. I had a horrible record against Amelie and that ended today, and I have a horrible record against Justine, so I hope that's a good omen."

The Russian took only 24 minutes to take the first set 6-0 but found the second set tougher going as Mauresmo appeared to find her game.

With the help of just the one break of serve, the Frenchwoman took the second set and the match looked poised for a thrilling finale.

But just as quickly as she had found it, Mauresmo's game deserted her again and Sharapova raced through the final set to the loss of only seven points to move into Saturday's final.

"I thought I played really smart and I took my chances," the 19-year-old Sharapova said.

"I wasn't making errors at the wrong times. I thought it was important to let her know early on from the beginning of the match that I was going to be strong."

Mauresmo, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year for her first grand slam titles, had no excuses after her defeat.

"I was maybe a little tired but there was nothing specific," said the Frenchwoman, who had won all three of her previous meetings with Sharapova.

"I think the difference today was that she made fewer unforced errors, I made the errors."

"I didn't feel very (good) throughout the match, maybe not thinking so good, not lucid."

"All credit to her. She played a good match. I didn't play the way I wanted today. Even when I won the second set, I didn't really feel like things were going the way I wanted them to."