Second seed Ivanovic, the 2007 runner-up, defeated fellow Serbian Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in Thursday's semi-final while 13th seeded Safina reached her first Grand Slam final with a shock 6-3, 6-2 victory over fourth seeded compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Ivanovic, who will become the new world number one on Saturday, win or lose, will start as favourite in her third Grand Slam final against a player she has defeated twice in three meetings.

But Safina, so long in the shadow of big brother Marat Safin, has enjoyed a fairytale run, twice coming back from a set and 2-5 deficits, and twice saving a match point, in her fairytale run through the tournament.

For Jankovic it was the fourth time she had played in a Grand Slam semi-final and the fourth time she had failed to make it through.

"It was a tough match and I managed to stay strong at the end to win it," said Ivanovic who also reached the Australian Open final in January but lost to Maria Sharapova.

"She started to play really good tennis and I was too passive and if you give her a chance of course she is going to use it."

Safina, 22, is now just one victory away from joining big brother Marat, who won the 2000 US Open and 2005 Australian Open, as a Grand Slam winner.

Few would begrudge his little sister from triumphing after staging two carbon copy comebacks in the previous rounds to see off top seed Sharapova and Elena Dementieva.

"God has kept me in the tournament. I knew I couldn't be passive because I knew I'd not get a third chance," said Safina.

"I told myself that if I had to die on the court, then I will die on the court. I had to give it all. After going through so many emotions in this tournament I knew what I had to do.

"I knew that nothing else could happen to me having been down and almost out." Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open winner and runner-up here in 2006, admitted she had played one of her worst matches in the French capital.

"It was really horrible, I felt bad," said the fourth seed, who could have become the new world number one had she gone on to win the title.