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Miami - Maria Sharapova, seeking her first title at the Miami WTA and ATP Masters hardcourt event, advanced to her fifth final here on Thursday with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Serbian 22nd seed Jelena Jankovic.
Third-seeded Sharapova will play for the crown on Saturday against the winner of a later match between top seed and World No. 1 Serena Williams and fourth-seeded defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska.
"It would mean so much to me," Sharapova said of a Miami title. "The fans give me so much support here. I love this city. It was the first city I came to in this country when I was a little girl and I would love to win here."
Four-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova lost to Kim Clijsters in the 2005 Miami final, to Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2006, Victoria Azarenka in 2011 and Radwanska last year - all in straight sets.
Not only is Sharapova trying to end her Florida frustration, she is trying to become only the third woman to win both major March events, Indian Wells and Miami, in the same year.
German great Steffi Graf swept the pair in 1994 and 1996 and Clijsters did it in 2005.
Sharapova broke Jankovic three times in each set to win her 11th match in a row, ending matters after 63 minutes by breaking the Serb with a forehand winner.
The Russian star reduced the number of double faults from 14 in a quarter-final victory over Italy's Sara Errani to only three against Jankovic.
"I thought I needed to step it up a lot from my last match," Sharapova said. "I had a very tough opponent and I had to play much better. I was very happy at the way I was able to focus today."
Sharapova took the first set in only 34 minutes, taking 12 of 14 points off her own first serves and 12 of 14 more off Jankovic's second serves.
Other later matches at the $8.5m event send British second seed Andy Murray against Croatian ninth seed Marin Cilic and Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych against French eighth seed Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals.
