Fourth seed Vera Zvonareva bundled Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova out of the Pan Pacific Open with a 7-6 6-0 victory to book a place in the Tokyo finals.
The Russian faces Agnieszka Radwanska for the title after the Pole beat Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3 4-6 6-2 under a setting sun in the second semi-final.
USOpen champion Samantha Stosur and world number one Caroline Wozniacki were among early upsets at the $2.69 million event, before Tokyo favourite Sharapova hobbled out.
Lacking in star quality after the spate of casualties, Tokyo's cavernous Ariake Colosseum was around half full when Radwanska finally put away third seed Azarenka.
