Title holder and top seed Amelie Mauresmo [ Images ] received an easy passage into the final of the Advanta Championships in Philadelphia on Saturday when Maria Sharapova [ Images ] was forced out of the event with a sore shoulder.

The Wimbledon [ Images ] champion and third-seeded Sharapova injured her shoulder two weeks ago at the Swisscom Challenge in Zurich and aggravated it during her quarter-final victory over Australia's [ Images ] Alicia Molik [ Images ] on Friday.

Frenchwoman Mauresmo now meets sixth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva [ Images ], who progressed with a 6-3, 7-6 win over compatriot Nadia Petrova [ Images ].

The eight-player field for next week's WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles was finalised on Friday when Jennifer Capriati [ Images ] and Venus Williams [ Images ] crashed out in the quarter-finals, allowing Zvonareva and Serena Williams [ Images ] to clinch the last two berths in the lucrative $3 million season finale.

The six players who had already secured places were world number one Lindsay Davenport [ Images ], U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova [ Images ], French Open [ Images ] winner Anastasia Myskina [ Images ], Elena Dementieva [ Images ], Mauresmo and Sharapova.