Tennis: Zvonareva into ASB Classic final

Vera Zvonareva in action during her straight sets semi final win over Daniela Hantuchova. Ross Land / Getty Images

Eighth seed Vera Zvonareva may have a world ranking of 36, but at the moment she's playing like the top 10 player she used to be and hopes to become again.

Zvonareva convincingly beat No. 2 seed Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 6-2 in little over an hour to move into her seventh career final.

Hantuchova had gotten out of trouble twice this week so far (she lost the first set in round one and was down 3-5 in the third set in the quarter-finals) but on Friday she came up against a ruthless opponent

and some tricky conditions.

"I was really struggling with the wind today. I couldn't really figure out which way it was blowing. The conditions were very tough and Vera just dealt with it much better," said Hantuchova.

"I think if she plays like this there's no reason [she can't get back to the top 10]. She's got a great game because there's not much that can really go wrong as she's very solid from both sides."

Zvonareva was definitely the boss out on the court as she dictated play with her penetrating groundstrokes. The Russian also benefited from Hantuchova's 30 unforced errors but said the lopsided score was a little deceiving.

"It looked comfortable from the side but I think it was a really tough match no matter what the scoreboard says," said Zvonareva.

The 21-year-old raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set as Hantuchova made her customary slow start. Hantuchova had a chance to make some in roads

at 2-5 when she had a couple of break points but Zvonareva quickly killed the mini threat with two booming groundstrokes.

She broke Hantuchova to take a 3-2 lead in the second set and all but wrapped things up when she broke again to take a 5-2 lead courtesy of four Hantuchova unforced errors.