TENNIS/French Open: Underneath the stats mountain, the unforced errors and the percentage of first returns, overhead winners and break points, there was no escape for the two Russian players Nadia Petrova and Elena Likhovtseva at Roland Garros yesterday.

What the statisticians failed to show yesterday after two sweepingly one-sided women's semi-finals was how the two winners, Mary Pierce and Justine Henin-Hardenne, managed to win their respective matches before a ball was struck. There is no repeat all- Russian final this year.

Henin-Hardenne took just eight minutes past the hour to out play Petrova 6-2, 6-3 and Pierce just 57 minutes to take care of Likhovtseva 6-1, 6-1. It is as the crowd would have wanted it with two French speakers in the final, albeit one with a Canadian accent and the other a Belgian.

As much as the matches illustrated the scattered confidence of the Russian players, for Pierce, the win represents a blow for 30-year-olds, a strike against the flood of teenagers who populate the sport.

She has now become the oldest player to contest a women's final since Martina Navratilova's appearance in Wimbledon in 1994 as a 38-year-old. It is also a positive a statement on the reclamation of her tennis body. Over weight and out of condition, Pierce made a training commitment last October and five months later appeared on the tour fit and a stone lighter.

Her father, too, has even come back into her life.

Jim Pierce was one of the original, fractious tennis parents, who seemed to thrive and advertised their ugliness at various tournaments around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

The player was forced to take out a restraining order against him, while the WTA banned him from all of their tournaments, his obnoxiously violent behaviour towards his daughter and exhortations to her during matches to "kill the bitch" not the image they wished to project.

But of all the players in the draw, few would have picked Pierce to be involved in the last game on, Henin-Hardenne's presence more in keeping with pre-tournament clay-court form. Pierce's clay season had been below average with second- or third-round exits and not until she dusted down Lindsay Davenport in the quarter-final this week did anyone really take notice.

Although Davenport and, yesterday, Likhovtseva have hinted at some gamesmanship over the amount of time Pierce takes to prepare for each point, especially on her opponent's serve, few can deny she has found a consistency and power that even Henin-Hardenne may have trouble decommissioning.

"It is a bit," said Likhovtseva when asked if Pierce's preening was annoyed for her. "But really I was struggling to get back to my game. Like, I fell apart really."

While she "soared like an eagle" against Davenport, Pierce refuses to see her reconditioned game as the fairy tale that others do. "Not at all," she said. "I've worked very hard. I believe in myself. That's why I am here today because I had something inside of me when I had my injuries that was telling me 'You know you're not done'.

"We got 10 girls now, maybe more, who can win a tournament any week. So when you come down to it, it's more the mental part of the game and being able to deal with things. And it's the little things that make the big difference at the top."

Like Pierce, the tough Henin-Hardenne, who won the US Open in 2003 just 12 hours after being on an IV drip in the locker room, has also come something of a full circle. She won Roland Garros also in 2003, while Pierce did it in 2000. Unable to play for a long time last year because of a debilitating virus, the Belgian has both managed to stay fit and bring her game to a level where she is now the firm favourite.

Seventh-seeded Petrova, who also lost in the semi-final here two years ago, briefly threatened to make a match of it when she broke Henin-Hardenne in her first service game.

The fast conditions were more suited to Henin-Hardenne, however, and her ferocious backhand constantly had Petrova scrambling to stay in the rallies.

Henin, broke in the seventh game of the second set and raised her arms in triumph two games later when Petrova shanked a forehand over the baseline.

"I have to agree I'm getting a little tired," she admitted. "I'm feeling my legs a little bit heavy. I will give my best one more time and then take a rest."

More mind games.