Fourth seed Vera Zvonareva bundled Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova out of the Pan Pacific Open with a 7-6 6-0 victory on Friday to book a place in the Tokyo finals.
The Russian will face either third seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in Saturday’s championship match.
Czech Kvitova had reached the last four after Maria Sharapova twisted her ankle in Thursday’s first set in a rematch of their Wimbledon final.
But she lacked the firepower to threaten Zvonareva, who brutally swatted her aside in brilliant sunshine, blowing a forehand volley to surrender the first set tiebreak 7-2.
The second set was embarrassingly one-sided, Kvitova appearing in a hurry to reach the locker room as she dumped another backhand into the net on match point.
U.S Open champion Samantha Stosur and world number one Caroline Wozniacki were among early upsets at the $2.05 million event, before Tokyo favourite Sharapova hobbled out.
