Maria Sharapova secured her place in the final of the WTA Tour's Madrid Open for the second consecutive year with a comfortable 6-1 6-4 win over Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska on Saturday.
The four-time grand slam champion will face Romanian Simona Halep in Sunday's final after she ground out a hard-fought 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-2 victory over fifth seed Petra Kvitova.
"I don't think we've played for a really long time. She's had such a great year and obviously she is the player to beat in the final," said Sharapova.
"No matter who I'm facing the toughest match is always the last one.
"It's great to be back in the final and give myself another opportunity."
Sharapova has slowly begun to hit form in recent weeks on her return to clay conditions after a difficult start to the year and she stormed through the opening set for the loss of just 11 points.
"I really challenged myself to improve on clay courts because that was never my favourite surface in the beginning of my career," added Sharapova.
"I've done a really good job of transitioning from the hard to the clay and really improving physically and recovering well from match to match."
Sharapova was dominant again at the start of the second as she raced into a 3-0 lead, but Radwanska battled back to take four straight games and lead 4-3 with a break.
Unfortunately for the third seed, though, she gifted the break straight back and Sharapova also took the next two games to round off victory in little over an hour.
Earlier, Halep booked her place in her first ever final of a mandatory event after outlasting Kvitova after over two-and-a-half hours on court.
"I couldn't believe that I came from behind again. She played really well and she was fighting the whole match," said Halep.
However, the 22-year-old is aware of the size of the task that awaits her in Sharapova having lost in their only two meetings to date.
"Maria is a champion and she knows how to manage the finals."
After just one break apiece it was Kvitova who edged a first set tie-break and the Czech looked on her way to her first final of the season when she led 3-1 early in the second.
Halep responded by taking the next seven games to level at one set all and go an early break ahead in the decider.
The fourth seed then broke the Kvitova serve once more to move ahead 5-2 and served the match out in the next game.
"She beat me in the New Haven final, so I was looking forward to revenge," said Kvitova.
"She was just better in the end."
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