Grand plan: Belgian will try to finish career Slam

Justine Henin-Hardenne will face No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo in Saturday's Wimbleon final.
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Hardly at the top of her game, Justine Henin-Hardenne steeled herself enough to hang on and reach the Wimbledon final, moving within one win of a career Grand Slam.
Widely considered one of the tour's grittiest players, the third-seeded Henin-Hardenne overcame problems with her serve and trademark backhand to beat No. 2 Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-6 (4) in an all-Belgian semifinal Thursday.
"I don't have anything to prove to anyone anymore," said Henin-Hardenne, trying to become the first woman in the Open era to win the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back without dropping a set at either. "I proved enough on the tennis court: the fighter I am, how much I can compete."
Her opponent Saturday will be No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, who wasted a big lead but collected herself and pulled out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory over 2004 champion Maria Sharapova.
Mauresmo entered the day 0-3 in Wimbledon semifinals, and a fourth setback appeared quite possible when she dropped five consecutive games to cede the second set.
"It was not perfect," she said, "but it still was a win."
Next up
The men's semifinals are today, with three-time champion Roger Federer against unseeded Jonas Bjorkman, and No. 2 Rafael Nadal against No. 18 Marcos Baghdatis. Nadal, the two-time French Open champion, played his postponed quarterfinal Thursday and eliminated No. 22 Jarko Nieminen 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 after getting a prematch pep talk in the locker room from the only Spaniard to win Wimbledon, 1966 champion Manolo Santana.
Nadal saved both break points he faced against Nieminen and hasn't lost serve in his past 12 sets.
"I finish fast," Nadal said, "so that's important for tomorrow, no?"
The women's final will be a rematch of January's Australian Open final, where Mauresmo collected her first Grand Slam trophy but was denied a chance to feel what it's like to win championship point at a major: Henin-Hardenne quit in the second set, citing an upset stomach from pain medicine she took for a shoulder injury.
"She probably feels very happy about it -- the opportunity to have revenge," Mauresmo said.
Finding a way
Playing her 20th tour match against Clijsters (each now has won 10), Henin-Hardenne figured out a way to win despite putting in only 49 percent of her first serves, making more unforced errors (17-13) and repeatedly missing backhands.
In a match of streaks, Henin-Hardenne was steadier. She trailed 4-3 in the first set, but reeled off 11 straight points and 14 of 15. Henin-Hardenne also fell behind 3-1 and 6-5 in the second set, but came back each time.
"She played well when she had to," U.S. Open champion Clijsters said. "That's what she's good at."
Mauresmo's always had an easier time with the physical demands of top-level tennis than the mental demands, and she appeared to be collapsing Thursday. Up a set and leading 3-1 in the second, the Frenchwoman got to love-40 on Sharapova's serve: That meant three chances to go up 4-1.
But after Sharapova erased one break point with a swinging forehand volley, Mauresmo made consecutive forehand errors to let the occasion slip. And then it got worse: Mauresmo double-faulted twice in each of her next two service games, part of the five-game run that handed Sharapova the set.
"Maybe," Mauresmo acknowledged, "I was thinking too much."
Vocal release
Sharapova is well-known for her shrieks on nearly every shot, but it was Mauresmo who let out a piercing scream late in that second set.
It was a release, she said, and it worked.
"I probably felt I needed to let it go, let it out a little bit," Mauresmo said. "I just felt that I needed to do that at that moment of the match. Didn't help me win the second set, but maybe helped me a little bit in that third."
Back to the serve-and-volley tactics that worked well in the first set, then disappeared in the second, Mauresmo also gave Sharapova trouble by hitting slower shots and tapping back returns. Mauresmo broke for a 2-0 lead in the final set when Sharapova missed a backhand, double-faulted, then missed a forehand, and soon it was 4-0. Still, Mauresmo had one last rough patch.
Sharapova won consecutive games to get to 4-2, then earned a break point that would have made it 4-3. But Mauresmo gathered herself and drilled an ace at 112 mph, then broke in the next game to end the 2-hour, 13-minute match.
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