Former world number one Venus Williams beat Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-3, 6-2 on Friday to reach the Memphis International final, her first event in more than four months because of injury.
The seventh-seeded American, recovered from wrist and knee injuries, saw off the 17-year-old qualifier in 71 minutes and next plays top seed Shahar Peer of Israel.
Peer beat American Meilen Tu 6-4, 7-5 in a marathon battle to reach her first final of the year.
Having struggled through to the last four, Williams produced her best performance of the week to end the enterprising run of world number 254 Olaru.
The American broke once to win the first set and cruised through the second to reach her first final since July 2005, in Stanford, California.
"It's been a long week and a lot of matches for me," Williams told reporters.
"I'm definitely pleased with my serve. It comes when I need it, and my second serve has a lot of pace and is difficult to attack.
"I'm excited to (have a chance of) winning the title."
Peer needed just over two hours to beat Tu, breaking the American in the 12th game of the second set.
"I knew she was playing well in this tournament because she was beating players very easily," Peer said.
"There were many moments in the match where I was just clapping as she was hitting winners from anywhere.
"I served well on the important points and I just kept fighting."
Peer, who reached the quarter-finals at last month's Australian Open, had won all three previous meetings with Tu, dropping just three games in their most recent encounter, and had romped through to the last four for the loss of just 10 games.
But world number 70 Tu, who had also not dropped a set on her way to the semi-finals, put up a huge fight.
After a first set that contained five breaks of serve, Peer edged it and came through a tense service game at 1-1 in the second set, saving two break points.
Tu saved nine break points in all and games went with serve until 6-5, when, after a dead net cord gave Peer a 30-15 lead on the American's serve, the Israeli snatched the break to clinch victory.
Peer said she would relish the opportunity to play Venus in the final.
"It will be pretty exciting for me," she said. "She's a great player and a great champion but I have nothing to lose."
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