Justine Henin-Hardenne underlined her status as tournament favourite with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Nadia Petrova in a one-sided French Open semi-final on Thursday.
The Belgian dynamo outgunned her seventh-seeded opponent to notch up her 23rd consecutive victory and reach her second Roland Garros final.
"I've got a lot of memories... a lot of emotions here," the 2003 French Open champion said. "It feels a little like being at home."
Russian Petrova was simply overwhelmed.
"I don't see anybody winning this tournament except Justine," she said.
The former world number one was robbed of her top ranking by an energy-sapping viral illness last year and only returned to tennis in April after recovering from a knee fracture.
She has lost just one match since, however, winning three warm-up events on clay heading into Paris.
"It would be great for me to finish the season unbeaten on clay," Henin smiled.
To do so she must beat Mary Pierce or Elena Likhovtseva in Saturday's final.
Petrova was the 10th seed's third straight Russian victim after Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
As the sun beat down on the Roland Garros centre court the seventh seed never stood a chance.
After exchanging early breaks, Henin increased her power to leave Petrova choking on Parisian clay.
Midway through the opening set the Russian began to unravel, gesturing wildly to the crowd, shrugging her shoulders and looking to the skies.
DISINTEGRATING GROUNDSTROKES
No number of air-shots performed after each mis-cued forehand seemed to improve her disintegrating groundstrokes.
Henin, unsympathetic to her opponent's turmoil, turned the screw.
She broke for a third time to lead 5-2. Two set points went by the wayside before she converted her third, smacking a backhand off the back foot to Petrova's forehand which was seemingly sucked into the net.
The error was accompanied by a pumped fist and a cry of "allez" as the Belgian took one step into the final.
Henin broke Petrova in the seventh game of the second set and raised her arms in triumph two games later when Petrova dropped serve again.
"I was very determined, I was patient and I was aggressive when I needed to be," the Belgian said.
"I'm very satisfied. I'm getting a bit tired but I keep winning and that's a good feeling."
Petrova had no answers on court or after the match.
"She kept me in trouble all the time, very aggressive. It's just one of those days where everything works in her favour -- she had one of those days today," the 22-year-old said.
"I must say, she just didn't give me time to do much, to change much, she just made me run.
"Everything went her way. She felt at home out there."
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