Top seeds Monica Seles and Jelena Dokic were both dumped out in the semi-finals of the Brazil Open in Bahia.
Eighth seed Eleni Daniilidou of Greece reached the final after fighting off apparent heat exhaustion to oust defending champion and second seed Seles 6-1 7-5.
Daniilidou will face third seed Anastasia Myskina on Saturday after the Russian put out top seed and last year’s runner-up Dokic of Yugoslavia 6-2 6-4.
Former Australian, U.S. and French Open champion Seles had not dropped a set before Friday but was crushed by her powerful and technically gifted opponent in the opening set.
The real drama came after Daniilidou, who won her first WTA title at s’Hertogenbosch this year, took a 5-4 lead in the second.
Play was held up as the Greek, who seemed to have difficulty breathing, was given medical attention but the 19-year-old opted to carry on even though she appeared to be on her last legs.
But despite looking completely exhausted she eventually came through.