Henin and Ivanovic meet in final

Justine Henin and Ana Ivanovic will meet in Saturday's French Open final after

posting crushing victories in today's semi-final matches.

World number one Henin will bid for a third consecutive Roland Garros title -

and fourth in total - after sweeping comfortably past fourth seed Jelena

Jankovic of Serbia, 6-2 6-2.

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An hour and a half earlier on Philippe Chatrier court, fellow Serb Ivanovic,

the 19-year-old seventh seed, demolished an error-prone Maria Sharapova 6-2 6-1

in stunning fashion to reach her first grand slam final.

The two finalists have met just once before, two years ago on clay in Warsaw

when Henin ran out a straight-sets winner.

The form both players displayed in their respective semis suggests it could be

a close call on Saturday, although 25-year-old Belgian Henin will start as

favourite owing to her experience on the Parisian dirt.

The champion here in 2003, 2005 and 2006, Henin said: "She's in great shape,

Ivanovic.

"She won in Berlin this year and she's very confident. She's matured a lot

over the last year.

"I think the player who manages to control the match better will win.

"This is my favourite event. It was the tournament I watched as a little girl,

and it was a dream for me to win it once. And I have done it three times.

"I still have a lot to do to win it a fourth time."

Ivanovic added: "It will be an amazingly tough match. Justine has won this

tournament a few times before and she's playing good on clay.

"But it's important for me to play my game and just focus.

"I'm very excited, though. Coming here, I didn't expect any of this. I just

tried to focus on each match separately."

Henin was thrilled with the way she dealt with Jankovic, who had emerged as a

dark horse for the title owing to her three tour wins this year and also her

elimination of Venus Williams and Nicole Vaidisova on her run to the semis.

"It was very good, very positive," the Belgian said. "It was a tactical

match and it was perfect.

"I was ready to play a tough match and ready to play hard on every point. And

it worked pretty well from the first point until the end.

"I just hope I can keep going."

It was Henin's 20th straight victory at Roland Garros, and she has now won 33

sets in a row here since 2005.

She broke serve five times in total, the first coming in the fourth game of the

37-minute first set when Jankovic sent a backhand into the net.

After squandering three break points in the sixth game, she kept the pressure

on the Serb's malfunctioning serve and broke it to love in the eighth to take

the set.

The world number one was just as dominant in the second set, taking Jankovic's

serve on three consecutive occasions - in the fourth, sixth and eighth games -

to clinch a sixth straight win over the Serb on the first of her three match

points.

Jankovic admitted she was simply outplayed by her wily opponent.

"It was disappointing for me to lose like this but Justine was a way better

play than I was today," said the 22-year-old.

"All credit to her, she played flawless. She was just too good.

"She was hitting the ball clean and I wasn't. I was making mistakes and

playing the wrong shot at the wrong time.

"It was a bad day for me."

Henin's win ruined any hopes the talented Ivanovic may have had of an

all-Serbian final against Jankovic.

The 19-year-old's movement and clay-court prowess had proved too much for

Sharapova.

It was embarrassing at times for the second seed, who made mistake after

mistake on either wing, reducing the Parisian crowd to a slow hand clap midway

through the second set.

"I just made sloppy errors," said the Russian, who did not apportion any of

the blame for her below-par display on the shoulder problems that have troubled

her throughout the tournament.

"I felt like I gave her the chances to open up the court. And I felt she was

always the one getting the first hit on the ball.

"Every time I did feel like I had my chances, I was making unforced errors. I

didn't quite have the rhythm."

Ivanovic started both sets well, establishing 3-0 leads in each of them, and

ended up breaking Sharapova five times in total.

The Serb, fittingly, clinched victory on the first of three match points with

an ace down the middle to become the first player representing Serbia to make

the final of a grand slam.

"I think I played a pretty good match," added Ivanovic, who grew up playing

tennis in a drained indoor swimming pool back in her home country.

"I knew I had to be aggressive from the very beginning. I didn't make many

unforced errors and I tried to put more pressure on her. And my serve worked as

well.

"I knew she was not a great mover on clay, so I tried to play deep balls and

move her about. She was going for the big shots."