Sharapova, the top seed, continued her dominance over her fellow Russian with a 6-3, 6-2 semifinal victory in the 1.34 million-dollar San Diego Classic.

Sharapova, who reached her third final of the season, will vie for the title against Switzerland's Patty Schnyder, who defeated Russian Elena Dementieva 7-6 (7/4), 6-0 in the second semifinal.

Showing no sign of the shoulder injury that has nagged her, Sharapova fired five aces and won 75 percent of the points on her first serve en route to improving to 5-0 all-time against Chakvetadze.

It was another strong effort for the 20-year-old, who has dropped just 15 of 61 games in four matches at this event.

"I'd rather be playing these matches than be playing tough matches," said Sharapova, adding that despite the apparent ease of Saturday's win, she thought she had played better earlier in the week.

"I didn't feel as sharp as I did in the previous matches, especially in the beginning of the match," she admitted. "I was making a lot of unforced errors off of the return. But other than that, (after the break) it's a good situation to be in."

Chakvetadze, meanwhile, had been the big story on the road to the US Open, winning tournaments at Cincinnati and Stanford in the past two weeks.

Despite already losing in straight sets in the quarterfinals at both the Australian and French Open to Sharapova this year, Chakvetadze appeared as if she might have the game to finally push the reigning US Open champion.

Chakvetadze did end the run of three-time winner Venus Williams in the quarters on Friday despite being down a set and 5-3 in the second. She overcame a match point en route to posting a 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 victory.

But Chakvetadze struggled against Sharapova, coughing up six double faults without an ace.

Chakvetadze admitted that she was feeling the effects of three straight weeks of tennis.

"I felt very tired," she said. "Maria played very well and hit a lot of winners, but I couldn't run and I could not play.

"I was not able to fight today like I did yesterday against Venus. I did not have much time to recover. In the end, I got cramps on my left side and I couldn't move as well."