France's Marion Bartoli pulled off the shock result of the tournament as she came back from a set down to beat world number one Justine Henin and reach her first Grand Slam final.
The world number 19, who had never before been past the fourth round of a Grand Slam, hustled and bustled Henin to an incredible 1-6 7-5 6-1 defeat in one hour and 55 minutes.
The 22-year-old, who is coached by her doctor father, was playing her first match on Centre Court, introducing a whole new audience to her very unusual style - hitting double-handed on both forehand and backhand. Both that and her strange service action, with a heavily bent wrist, bothered and eventually destroyed Henin in a tricky, swirling wind after the Belgian had surged through the opening set.
Henin's progress into the semi-final had been almost regal, with only one set dropped (to Serena Williams in the quarter-finals) and it looked to be continuing as she swept to the first set in just 22 minutes.
But after Bartoli settled any possible Centre Court nerves, her ungainly style, which generates plenty of power, helped her start to unpick the Henin game.
After Henin had broken at the start of the second set, the Frenchwoman hit back to take the Belgian serve and then held following one brilliant exchange of volleys which even had Henin applauding.
Henin's serenity was jolted when Bartoli's aggression again brought a service break, leaving the French Open champion trailing 1-3. This was the stuff which had seen off the third seed, Jelena Jankovic, in the fourth round.
But Henin is experienced in such adverse situations and her reaction could not have been more positive. Her raking backhand, the finest in the women's game, began to zero in on the deepest corners, testing the reach of Bartoli's unorthodox grip.
Twice more the Bartoli delivery was broken to see Henin into a 4-3 lead, but the Geneva-based Bartoli was not afraid to attack, standing well inside the baseline to receive serve, and was rewarded, to the delight of the Centre Court audience, with another break to pull level at 4-4.
There was even better to follow for the outsider. After fighting off two break points at 5-5 which would have left Justine serving for the match, Bartoli broke Henin to love to level the match.
Things got even better for Bartoli, who is only ranked number three in France, in the third set.
Every shot had Henin scrambling to stay alive, and she was palpably failing to do so. Bartoli raced into a 5-0 lead, winning seven games in succession in front of a disbelieving crowd and an increasingly desperate Henin.
Only once did Henin look like stemming the flood. In the third game she had two break points but Bartoli was not to be stopped on this, her wonder day.
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