Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne made her racquet speak more eloquently than a thousand words when she outplayed Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-1, 6-2 to reach the final of the German Open.
It was their first meeting since the controversial Australian Open final in January when Henin retired unwell in the second set, creating an anti-climactic finish to Mauresmo's first Grand Slam title triumph.
Henin was widely criticised for that decision and Mauresmo conspicuously did not distance herself from that criticism. Now the Belgian gave her answer with a stunning display which overwhelmed the world number one from France.
Henin leapt into the attack right at the beginning and continued so intensely that it was clear she was pumped up to an unusual degree. She broke Mauresmo's serve at once with an audacious drop, broke again with a fierce forehand winner taken from the backhand side, and kept up the battering right through the first set.
Henin was particularly punishing with her forehand, with which she generated surprising power for so slight a figure, and not always her stronger wing.
There was a brief respite when Henin played one indifferent game to lose her break of serve advantage in the second set, but she regained it at once to reach 4-2.
Mauresmo tried slowing the pace down, then mixing moon balls with faster attacks, and also got support from a crowd wishing to see a longer match for their money.
But it rarely disrupted Henin's rhythm and she finished the match with yet another forehand driven winner in three minutes less than an hour. Mauresmo may have been disadvantaged by having had to complete the final set of her quarter-final against Martina Hingis earlier in the day.
This saw her make an improbable comeback from a 0-3 deficit in the final set to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win against the former triple Grand Slam titleholder. But when asked to make another comeback two hours later Mauresmo could not respond.
Neverthless Henin can rarely have played better, and it signalled her not only as favourite to retain her German Open title on Sunday but perhaps already as unofficial favourite to retain the French Open starting later this month.
She now has a repeat of last year's final against Nadia Petrova.
The second-seeded Russian won the other semi-final even more easily as Li Na, playing in her first tier one tournament semi-final, was quite unable to find the tenacity which had enabled her to beat the fourth-seeded Patty Schnyder.
The woman from Wuhan in Hubei province appeared with a thigh heavily bandaged and looking distinctly jaded, and was overwhelmed 6-1, 6-0 by Petrova in only 45 minutes.
It earned the second-seeded Russian the second tier one final of her career, and carried her 2006 wins total - the highest on the women's tour - to 32.
The only relief which Li got from the constant bombardment of solid ground strokes was a rain delay of several minutes at 4-1 in the first set.
But that only made it harder for her to get into the swing of things The only moments when it seemed Li might get into the match occurred in a long game of four deuces in the second game of the second set, when she had a chance to break back for 1-1.
But she over-hit a drive and once the brief opportunity had gone, the match slipped away with increasing speed.
SATURDAY'S RESULTS (x denotes seeding):
QUARTER-FINALS: Amelie Mauresmo (FRA x1) bt Martina Hingis (SUI) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
SEMI-FINALS: Nadia Petrova (RUS x 2) bt Li Na (CHN) 6-1, 6-0; Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL x3) bt Amelie Mauresmo (FRA x1) 6-1, 6-2.
FRIDAY'S COLLATED RESULTS:
QUARTER-FINALS: Nadia Petrova (RUS x 2) bt Dinara Safina (RUS x10) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Li Na (CHN) bt Patty Schnyder (SUI x4) 2-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/1); Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL x3) bt Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x6) 6-4, 7-6 (7/2); Amelie Mauresmo (FRA x1) and Martina Hingis (SUI) level at 4-6, 6-4 when bad light stopped play. Match to resume Saturday.
WTA PRAGUE OPEN
SATURDAY'S COLLATED RESULTS (x denotes seeding):-
SEMI-FINALS: Shahar Peer (ISR x3) bt Kaia Kanepi (EST) 6-3, 6-0; Samantha Stosur (AUS x5) bt Shui Peng (CHN x7) 6-1, 6-3.
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