The sixth-seeded Russian and reigning French Open champion continued her strong play at this event. Kuznetsova was last year's China Open runner-up to Jelena Jankovic, won the 2006 crown and was also a finalist in 2004.

The Russian collected a first-place prize of $775,500 and was appearing in her fourth final this year. In addition to winning her second career grand slam at Roland Garros, she was also victorious in Stuttgart and lost in the Rome title match. All three finals were contested against fellow Russian Dinara Safina.

Kuznetsova, who defeated Radwanska earlier this year en route to the French Open title, dominated the first set, breaking the 20-year-old Pole three times and running her around the court with her penetrating pinpoint ground strokes.

In the second, the 24-year-old Russian also went up an early break and never looked back, keeping Radwanska on the run by hitting difficult angles from the baseline.

She easily served out the match, ending with a wide serve Radwanska could not handle.

"Until this morning I didn't realize it was such a high category tournament with so much prize money - I seem to play my best tennis when it's important!"

"I've now won here two out of four times and reached two finals; it's hard to explain why, but I guess it's a great place for me."

"I guess I just like to play here," she said. "I have some different luck here and definitely like the atmosphere. The support is great."

"It was important to keep my concentration against Agnieszka, not miss easy balls, keep winning my service games and try my best against her serve."

Radwanska, the No. 12 seed, had never lost in four previous title match appearances, winning three times last year and once in 2007.

Kuznetsova improved to 6-3 lifetime against Radwanska.

The sixth-seeded Kuznetsova cruised past fellow Russian Nadia Petrova, 6-1, 6-3 in just 68 minutes, before the 12th-seeded Radwanska posted a 6-4, 6-3 win over France's Marion Bartoli.

Kuznetsova, the reigning French Open champion, continued her strong play at this event. She was last year's China Open runner-up to Jelena Jankovic, won the 2006 crown and was also a finalist in 2004.

Sunday's final will be the 20th in Kuznetsova's career and her fourth of 2009. In addition to her French Open victory, she also won in Stuttgart and lost in the Rome title match. All three finals were contested against Dinara Safina.

Kuznetsova owns a record of 5-3 lifetime against Radwanska, including a 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 victory in the fourth round of this year's French Open.

"If I play my best game, if I am doing well, I think I will be the favourite," said Kuznetsova, who has won just one of her three previous finals in Beijing in 2006.

"I think I'm going to win this time."

Twelfth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska toppled the fourth-seeded Dementieva 7-5, 6-3 on Day 7 at the Olympic Green Tennis Center. The capable Radwanska pulled off the upset in 1 hour, 44 minutes with the help of a whopping six service breaks.

Dementieva's loss left this lucrative tournament without any of its' top-five seeds heading into the final weekend.

The two-time major runner-up Dementieva captured Olympic gold at this same tennis complex 14 months ago.

Petrova fought from behind to get past giant-killer Peng Shuai, of China, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-2. Peng shocked the former world No. 1 and defending Beijing champion Jankovic in the second round and former top-ranked star and last week's Tokyo titlist Maria Sharapova in the third round here.

Saturday's other semifinal will pit Radwanska against 14th-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli. The 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli came back to upend seventh-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.

The 2009 Beijing champion will collect $775,500.

Svetlana Kuznetsova moved into the quarterfinals by defeating Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.

Peng broke Sharapova twice in the first set, and again in the sixth game of the second. Sharapova saved two match points at 5-4 before losing to the 53rd-ranked player.

"But I was able to fight through that and get through it, and today was just not one of those days, unfortunately."

Kuznetsova will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who defeated Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 6-4, 6-4. Fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia routed Li Na of China 6-2, 6-0.

Serena's sister Venus, the world number three, also had a bad day, losing to Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for the second week in a row, this time 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Serena just needs to beat Ekaterina Makarova in her second round match at the Olympic tennis centre on Tuesday to move up from number two after Safina crumbled in the face of a fierce onslaught from the 226th ranked Zhang.

Safina, who lost her opening match at last week's Pan Pacific Open to a qualifier, made 20 unforced errors and 12 double faults before leaving the centre court in tears. Her post-match news conference was cancelled.

"I'm just having some bad losses right now," the Russian said in a statement released by organisers.

Pavlyuchenkova, the world number 39 dominated the final two sets of the match to claim her second win over seven-times grand slam winner Venus after last Monday's upset in Tokyo.

Williams began well but got an inkling of the fight that was to come when her 18-year-old opponent took her to six deuces as she was serving for the first set.

Sixth seeded French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova joined her compatriot in the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues.

The partisan centre court crowd later had another victory to cheer when China's number one Li Na battled past Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 to reach the third round.

This includes 2.1 million for the ATP 500 Series, 4.5 million for WTA Crown-Jewel Events.

The men single's winner will get $573,000 as well as 500 points, with the second taking home $286,500 and 300 points.

The bonus and points for the champion of women's doubles and men's doubles are $266,000, 1000 points and $160,000 and 500 points respectively.

Chang Kai-chen, an 18-year-old from Taiwan, upset the top-ranked Safina 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5. Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova edged Williams 7-6 (6), 7-5 to reach the third round.

Safina was serving for the match in the third set when she double-faulted to give up a break. Chang, ranked 132nd and playing only the fourth time in a WTA main draw, held her serve and broke Safina again for victory.

"The double-fault didn't affect me that much," Safina said. "Whether it's a double-fault or a mistake it's the same. It's just the way I played at 5-4. It wasn't the right game, I didn't use my first serve the whole game."

A dejected Williams made a hasty exit from Ariake Colosseum, saying only she was looking forward to her next match in Beijing.

Williams took a 3-0 lead in the first set but the 18-year-old Pavlyuchenkova fought back, breaking Williams to tie it 5-5 before holding serve and winning the tiebreak.

"On match point, I was just thinking the same thing as always," Chang said. "I wasn't thinking 'Oh, I have match point, I'm going to win.'"

Chang said her thoughts turned to her parents after the upset.

"My mother doesn't get out to watch a lot of matches but she follows the live scoring, and I was thinking about what she thought when she saw today's score," Chang said.

Chang made her Grand Slam debut at this year's U.S. Open, advancing to the second round.

In other matches, Andrea Petkovic upset fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. Kuznetsova lost to Safina in last year's final here. Veteran Ai Sugiyama, playing in her last singles match, was forced to retire while trailing 6-0, 2-1 to Nadia Petrova.

The 34-year-old Sugiyama, who announced this month she will retire after 17 years on tour, said she was feeling ill.

Triple grand slam winner Sharapova has slipped to 49th in the rankings after nine months out with a shoulder injury. She returned to the WTA Tour in May.

Henin is to choose between Brisbane, starting on Jan 3, and the WTA event in Auckland, starting Jan 4, as the seven-time Grand Slam winner embarks on her second career.

"It is Justine who will decide. It will probably be Brisbane," Rodriguez said.

Henin, 27, could well cross the path of compatriot and fellow ex-retiree Kim Clijsters in Australia.

Despite her greater honours record, the Belgian media last month portrayed Henin unfavourably compared with the bubbly Clijsters owing to the former's cool, demeanour.

Henin won a total of 41 WTA Tour titles and held the world No 1 spot for 117 non-consecutive weeks, the ranking she had when she retired on May 14, 2008, citing a succession of injuries and a desire to live a life away from tennis.