Anastasia Myskina edged an off-colour Lindsay Davenport 6-4, 7-6 in a tight battle between the defending champion and the new world number one to reach the Kremlin Cup final in Moscow for the second year in a row on Saturday.
The French Open champion converted her first break point in the 10th game to take the opening set. Then, after both players were broken twice in the second set, the Russian raced away with a tiebreaker 7-1 to clinch the match in 78 minutes.
"I wanted to keep the points short today as I wasn't feeling well," said the second-seeded American, who regained the number one spot from injured Amelie Mauresmo by winning her opening match at the $2.3 million Moscow tournament.
"I made too many errors at the wrong time as I had to go for the big shots because I knew I couldn't stay very long on the court today," she added. "I had a hard time with my chest and with my head. I wasn't 100 percent ready for the game today."
French and U.S. Open runner-up Elena Dementieva takes on fellow Russian Elena Bovina in the second semi-final later on Saturday.
