Henin claimed her 56th WTA Tour final appearance with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over the 20-year-old Serb.
Kuznetsova overcame unseeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova in the other semi-final, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).
It is the first time since February 2006 in Antwerp that the two top ranked players have met in a WTA final.Kuznetsova trails Henin 15-2 in career match-ups, but is unperturbed by the disparity.
Henin is chasing her third win in the Sydney tournament, having won the title here against Amelie Mauresmo in 2004 and Francesca Schiavone in 2006.
Henin overcame Ivanovic despite a faltering 47 percent serve which conceded 11 double-faults and was broken three times.
But just as Henin looked in danger when Ivanovic levelled at a set all, she broke the young Serb in the third game of the final set when she netted an attempted backhand pass.
Henin surged to victory from there as Ivanovic struggled and netted with a backhand on match point. She now leads Ivanovic 4-0 in career meetings.
Henin went into the final on the back of just one match against Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi after a bye and a walkover against Lucie Safarova in the opening rounds of the tournament.
Ivanovic was pleased to have three close three-set matches to prepare her for the year’s first Grand Slam.
“I was really happy that for almost the whole match except the last game I managed to keep my level,” Ivanovic said. “I didn’t have many up and downs like I did in the previous matches, so that’s something positive after all the hard work in the off-season.”
While the women’s final will feature the world’s top two ranked players, the men’s draw has suffered high-profile casualties.
The only seeded player to make it through to the quarter-finals was world number 14 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic but his campaign ended at the hands of Australian wildcard Chris Guccione.
The tall lefthander, ranked 125 in the world, followed up his win over Lleyton Hewitt the previous day by beating Berdych 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
He will play Berdych’s compatriot Radek Stepanek in the semi-finals after Stepanek accounted for Argentina’s Agustin Calleri 6-2, 6-4.
Results (x denotes seeding):
Women’s singles
Semi-finals: Justine Henin (BEL x1) bt Ana Ivanovic (SRB x4) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4; Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x2) bt Nicole Vaidisova (CZE) 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).
Men’s singles:
Quarter-finals: Radek Stepanek (CZE) bt Agustin Calleri (ARG) 6-2, 6-4; Chris Guccione (AUS) bt Tomas Berdych (CZE x4) 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4; Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) bt Sebastien Grosjean (FRA) 6-4, 6-2; Fabrice Santoro (FRA) bt Evgeny Korolev (RUS) 6-3, 6-3.
ZVONAREVA, DANIILIDOU IN FINAL
HOBART: Second seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva will face Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the final of the Hobart International after a comprehensive semi-final victory here on Thursday.
Zvonareva took just 59 minutes to defeat American qualifier Ashley Harkleroad, 6-2, 6-1, while world No.42 Daniilidou had a straight sets win over Italy’s Flavia Pennetta.
The Russian converted five of seven break point opportunities in the match and gave Harkleroad no chance from the back of the court.
Daniilidou clinched her sixth WTA Tour final appearance with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Pennetta.It was also Daniilidou’s first victory against the Italian after losing their previous three meetings at Wimbledon (2005), Zurich (2005) and Estoril (2006).
Results:
Semi-finals: Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) bt Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 6-4, 6-3; Vera Zvonareva (RUS x2) bt Ashley Harkleroad (US) 6-2, 6-1.
Roddick reaches fourth successive final
MELBOURNE: Andy Roddick continued his bid for a Kooyong Classic hat-trick on Thursday with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Marat Safin to reach his fourth consecutive final.
Roddick braved 41 degrees Celsius temperatures for the quickfire win, which sets him up for Saturday’s final against either Marcos Baghdatis or Fernando Gonzalez.
Roddick was beaten in the 2005 final by Roger Federer but then won the 2006 edition against Tommy Haas before taking his revenge over the top-ranked Swiss last year.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Andy Murray said he had never been in better shape for a major as he bounced back from his opening Kooyong Classic defeat to beat Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-2.
The world number nine, jet-lagged and nauseous during Wednesday’s loss to Marat Safin, felt the benefits of a Florida training stint as he overcame a slow start to get his Australian Open preparations back on track.
Results: Promotion round: Andy Roddick (US) bt Marat Safin (RUS) 6-3, 6-3.–Agencies