Justine Henin remained on course for her sixth tour title of the season, after bringing Chinese qualifiers Zi Yan's surprising run at the Rogers Cup to an end with a straightforward straight sets victory.
Playing in her first tournament since Wimbledon in July, Henin showed few sign of rustiness, and dropped just three games en route to a comfortable win over her opponent, ranked 169th in the world.
In the early stages Yan showed glimpses of the form that helped her account for Ana Ivanovic and Marion Bartoli on her way to the semi final, beating Henin with an inch perfect Lob.
That, however was not a sign of better to come, as the Belgian mixed up strong groundstrokes with regular approaches to the net to overpower the 22 year old Yan.
In addition to some powerful hitting Henin showed some deft touches around the court and Yan come up with few answers to the top seed's combination of pace and subtlety.
The 2003 Champion reeled off nine games in a row to wrap up victory and was naturally delighted to come through what she thought could have been a potentially difficult game.
Henin's return to form will not come as welcome news for Jelena Jankovic, who will be playing in her seventh final of the season on Sunday after being pushed all the way by France's Tatiana Golovin.
Playing in her third semi-final of the year, Golovin did not make things easy for the number two seed in their evening match.
Jankovic looked to be cruising to an an easy win leading 5-2 and serving for the opening set, but the Frenchwoman somehow pulled off an improbable first-set victory breaking her opponent three times over the next five games to take a one set lead.
After losing the first game of the second set, Jankovic returned to form breaking her opponent twice to take a 4-2 lead, and this time the Serb held the advantage to level the match.
Back in command, Jankovic secured the early break again in the third set to go up 3-1 and rolled to the finish by winning the final four games but said that it had been far from the perfect performance.
WTA Rogers Cup: Henin in final
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