France's Marion Bartoli celebrates after winning her semi-final against Belgium's Justine Henin yesterday. - Reuters

LONDON (Reuters):

A LITTLE-known French-woman destroyed world number one Justine Henin's Wimbledon dream yesterday.

Marion Bartoli produced the tennis of her life to humble a shell-shocked Henin 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 and march into her first grand slam final against Venus Williams.

As Bartoli sealed the Belgian's fate and lapped up the applause from 13,000 cheering fans, a forlorn Henin had to cope with her earliest exit from a grand slam since 2005.

Biggest upset

The result was the biggest upset in the sport since Jelena Dokic defeated then world number one Martina Hingis in the first round at Wimbledon in 1999.

When Henin arrived at the All England Club, her run to the final had almost been a foregone conclusion, with the real race being to see who would face her in the showpiece match on Saturday.

But a player who had won only four matches at Wimbledon before this year dashed Henin's hopes of winning the only grand slam trophy missing from her collection.

Williams also showed her appetite for humbling higher ranked opponents by beating sixth-seeded Serb Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-4.

The 31st-ranked American has also gobbled up second seed Maria Sharapova and fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova this week and with Henin's exit, she will be the overwhelming favourite to win her fourth title here.