The eighth seeded Russian outlasted the Italian 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 in an energy-sapping encounter that ran close to three hours on centre court.
Schiavone came into this match full of confidence following her outstanding quarterfinal upset of the top seeded Justin Henin yesterday. And she continued in the same vain by trading heavy rallies with Dementieva as the match heated up immediately.
Schiavone always looked lively against the inconsistency of the Dementieva serve, and found her way back into contention when she broke the Russian who was serving for the first set. Dementieva was further rocked when Schiavone broke in the twelfth game to steal the opener.
Dementieva fought back though and gained a foothold when she broke the Italian to move 4-3 ahead in the second set. But her serve was to once again prove vulnerable.
The Russian was broken in consecutive games having taking twice taken the serve off her opponent, the second time of which she had served for the set. Yet another service break put Dementieva 6-5 ahead, and this time she was to make no mistake in closing out the set.
Schiavone was now starting to show the side-effects of tough matches in consecutive days and her challenge began to fade away.
Dementieva moved 5-2 up in the decider against her weary opponent. Then the more youthful Russian served out the match to 30, booking her place in the final against compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Kuznetsova herself was put through the ringer in a gruelling semifinal encounter with the fourth seeded Jelena Jankovic earlier
The No. 2 seeded Russian rallied from a set down to beat the Serbian 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, in a match lasting just shy of two and three quarter hours.
Kuznetsova has won all of the last three matches she has played against Dementieva, all those wins coming on a hard court too.
Dementieva hasn't beaten Kuznetsova in almost three years.
Kuznetsova leads 5-3 overall on the head-to-head count.
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