Second seed Victoria Azarenka reached her first Kremlin Cup final with a 6-3 6-3 win over Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez on Saturday.
In Sunday's final, the powerful Belarussian will face sixth-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko, who thrashed compatriot Vera Dushevina 6-1 6-1 in the second semi-final.
World number 10 Azarenka dominated eighth-seeded Martinez Sanchez from the baseline, breaking her serve in the fifth game to take the opening set and twice more in the second to seal a first victory over the Spaniard in three attempts.
"I had the right tactics against Sanchez," said Azarenka, who had already secured a place in next week's season-ending WTA championships in Doha when American Serena Williams pulled out with a foot injury.
"I didn't allow her to play aggressively, the way she likes, and also come to the net."
Azarenka must now get past 24th-ranked Kirilenko who has been playing some of the best tennis of her career having dropped only five games in her three previous matches in Mosco been playing some of the best tennis of her career having dropped only five games in her three previous matches in Mosco w.
BRILLIANT KIRILENKO
"You never know what to expect of her," Azarenka, who will be gunning for her second title of the year after winning in Stanford, said of her opponent in Sunday's final.
"She could be brilliant one day and very bad the next."
The annual ATP and WTA indoor tournament has been hit by withdrawals of high-profile players, especially among the women.
Home favorites Vera Zvonareva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova as well as Italy's 2009 champion Francesca Schiavone all pulled out in the run-up to the event.
Fourth-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis had to work much harder than the women's finalists to reach his first Kremlin Cup showpiece on his Moscow debut.
The world number 19, the highest seed left in the men's draw, battled for nearly 2-1/2 hours before beating unseeded Uzbek Denis Istomin 6-4 6-7 7-6.
"I fought hard to the very end. Fortunately I won. I'm happy and I'll try to play better tomorrow," said Baghdatis, who will face another unseeded opponent, Viktor Troicki, on Sunday.
The 43rd-ranked Serbian ended the giant-killing run of Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas by winning 6-3 6-3.
Cuevas had eliminated top seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and fifth-seeded Czech Radek Stepanek in the two previous rounds before finally running out of steam in the semi-finals.
