Justine Henin put aside memories of her acrimonious clash with Serena Williams [Images] four years ago to beat the Australian Open champion 6-4, 6-3 and reach the French Open semi-finals on Tuesday.

World number two Maria Sharapova [Images] advanced to the semi-finals of the French Open for the first time by brushing aside fellow 20-year-old Russian Anna Chakvetadze [Images] 6-3, 6-4.

Women's semi-final line-up

Justine Henin vs Jelena Jankovic
Maria Sharapova vs Ana Ivanovic

This time there was no repeat of the highly-charged 2003 match as the Belgian world number one simply outclassed Williams with her sublime strokeplay.

Henin stamped her mark on clay by taking the first set with a forehand winner while Williams succumbed by slamming one of many of her misfiring forehands into the net.

Henin, chasing a hat-trick of titles, has now won 31 consecutive sets in Paris dating back to 2005.

She will face fourth seed Jelena Jankovic for a place in Saturday's final.

Second seed Sharapova, who feels more at ease on faster surfaces and had never gone beyond the quarter-finals on four previous visits to Roland Garros, needed just 78 minutes to beat her compatriot, seeded ninth.

Chakvetadze, who lost to Sharapova in the quarter-finals of this year's Australian Open, bowed out by firing a backhand return wide on the first match point.

Former Wimbledon champion Sharapova, who is hampered by a sore shoulder and said here she felt like a "cow on ice" on clay, will face Serbia's Ana Ivanovic for a place in the final.