Russian second seed Maria Sharapova pulled out of Saturday's Italian Open semi-final with Serb title holder Jelena Jankovic because of injury.
In the final, fourth seed Jankovic will meet 18-year-old Alize Cornet, who staged a splendid comeback to upset Russian sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze 3-6 6-4 6-3.
The first set of that semi-final was tight until the seventh game, when Cornet was punished with a break of serve after blasting some easy forehands into net.
Frenchwoman Cornet lost the five games that followed and looked out of the match at 3-0 down in the second set.
But Chakvetadze repeated the tendency she showed earlier in the tournament to relax in the middle of her matches and Cornet took advantage to roar back and level things.
Cornet, who knocked out last year's finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova on Thursday, carried the momentum in the deciding set to reach her first big final.
Apart from Sharapova's departure, the women's tournament has been troubled by injuries, like the men's Rome Masters was last week.
Cornet received a walkover into the last four on Friday when Serena Williams pulled out of their quarter-final with a back injury.
Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova progressed to the quarter-finals on Thursday when Belarussian Victoria Azarenka retired with a knee injury from their third round match when the former was 6-2 1-0 ahead.
Both of the semi-finals and one of the quarters at last week's Rome Masters ended early because of injury.
