Hingis, 18, will meet the winner of Saturday's other semifinal between four-time defending champion Monica Seles and unseeded Anne Gaelle-Sidot of France.

Hingis advanced to Sunday's final by keeping Pierce on the run, preventing the Frenchwoman from setting up her booming forehand.

``In today's match, I was happy to get it done,'' Hingis said. ``You just have to put her on the run but it's not so easy. She hits the ball so good and hard. You have to make her move and take your chances.''

Pierce, 24, was born in Montreal and had most of the full house at the National Tennis Centre behind her. Hingis improved her record against the sixth-ranked player in the world to 6-5.

Hingis lost in the du Maurier semifinal last year to Seles and was eliminated in the third round in 1995.

Hingis and Pierce were the most rested of the four semifinalists who all had to play quarterfinal matches early Saturday after they were postponed by Friday's steady rain.

Hingis barely broke a sweat in her quarterfinal, dispatching fifth-seeded Aranxta Sanchez Vicario 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour and extending her career streak over the Spaniard to 11 straight wins.

Pierce needed to play only three games in her quarterfinal because her match against countrywoman Sandrine Testud was stopped at 6-1, 4-2 on Friday. Pierce finished off Testud in the second set Saturday 6-3.

Seles and Sidot had a tougher road to the semifinals, going three sets with their quarterfinal opponents.

Seles beat ninth-seeded Austrian Barbara Schett 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, while Sidot, one of three French players to make the quarters and the only unseeded player to do so, ousted sixth-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

``I feel a little bit unlucky for not having won that match,'' said Coetzer, ranked ninth in the world. ``I haven't seen somebody hit that many balls on the line for that long. I think she just played on adrenaline for a while.''