The Serbian won 6-1 7-5 and will face Spain's Anabel Madinah
Garrigues in the final on Sunday, her 24th birthday.
Madinah Garrigues progressed when Sabine Lisicki of Germany
retired with a back injury with the Spaniard leading 6-3 4-6 4-0.
Ivanovic made a perfect start, giving up just three points
in the opening four games as her aggressive baseline play left her Russian
opponent reeling.
After claiming the first set, Ivanovic broke for 1-0 in the
second and then held three points for a 3-0 lead before Petrova finally managed
to work her way into the match.
As Ivanovic failed to maintain her formidable performance,
Petrova settled and engaged her opponent in spectacular rallies which several
times led to Ivanovic throwing herself to the ground in search of a winner.
Three consecutive breaks put the players level at 3-3 and
Ivanovic then had to fight off a set point at 5-4, firing an impressing
backhand winner down the line.
In a dramatic finale, Ivanovic held for 5-5 and then broke
to move ahead before serving out the match after the Russian had almost leveled
again.
"I played really well from the beginning,"
Ivanovic told reporters. "Then that game at 2-0 (in the second set), she
really raised her game and went for more shots and made less errors and was
serving bigger.
"Not breaking her then was kind of a turning point for
her a little bit and then I played a bad game to lose my serve. That was
crucial and then we had a bit of a fight."
Lisicki looked flat right from
the start against Madinah Garrigues and midway through the second set she was
clearly in pain. She left the court for several minutes for treatment after
breaking to lead 4-3.
When she returned, Lisicki won two of the next three games
to take the match into a third set but, after earning just two points in the
first four games, she quit at 30-30 in the fifth.
