Paris: Seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova struggled past Australian Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 on Thursday to book her place in the French Open final.
Kuznetsova will take on compatriot and world No. 1 Dinara Safina in an all-Russian final on Saturday.
The 2004 US Open champion is the only player to have beaten Safina on clay this season, in the final in Stuttgart last month.
Kuznetsova dominated most of the points but she said she had been annoyed by the topspin Stosur put on her shots.
"I've been playing the ball from the second floor up here. It was not very comfortable. I had to play two metres behind (the baseline)," she said.
The Russian, however, enjoyed the match. "I enjoyed having long rallies, putting a lot of spin, playing different balls. I really love doing this, and this is a pleasure which is my job and also it's my passion."
Stosur, who was playing her first Grand Slam semi-final, adopted a positive attitude.
"Obviously losing you're always disappointed, but I think there's so many positives I can take from this week and also this match," she said.
"So I'll be disappointed, but I'll wake up tomorrow and know that I had a great two weeks here and definitely will be looking forward to the next time I come back. "So there's far more positives than negatives right now," added the Australian, who will break into the top 20 when the WTA releases its latest rankings next week.
Scrappy Start
In a scrappy start, four games went against serve before Kuznetsova snatched the decisive break in the seventh.
The Australian 30th seed threatened a comeback at 5-4 down but Kuznetsova shrugged off the break point with a forehand winner and pocketed the set on her second opportunity when Stosur failed to control a crosscourt backhand.
At the change of ends after the ninth game, Kuznetsova took a medical time out to have strapping changed around her right foot following a fall in her previous match.
Kuznetsova said the problem came from a blister. "It was a huge blister. When I started to feel it, it was huge, so I had to retape it," she said.
She took control of the second set with a break in the third game but Stosur broke back for 4-4, forcing a tiebreak.
Kuznetsova had a mini break for 3-1 after winning a spectacular eight-stroke volley exchange and went on to lead 5-2.
Stosur, who has 22 doubles titles to her name but has never won a singles tournament on the main tour, did not throw in the towel and won five points in a row to level the contest with a forehand winner.
Kuznetsova saved a break point in the fifth game and stole her opponent's serve in the following game.
She kept her composure and made it to a fourth grand slam final on her first match point when Stosur netted a forehand.
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