Ana Ivanovic leads the tennis revolution in Serbia. Getty Images

Back home in Belgrade, the strokes Ana Ivanovic practised in the local swimming pool were her forehand and backhand.

On Saturday, she'll hit those same shots in the French Open final.

War-ravaged Serbia wasn't exactly a tennis hotbed in the 1990s, but the nation has produced three semifinalists at Roland Garros this year, a grand slam record.

And Ivanovic advanced to her first major final by routing No.2-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova 6-2 6-1.

Ivanovic's opponent will be three-time champion Justine Henin, who beat Serb Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 6-2 while Novak Djokovic reached the final four in the men's competition.

"We have a very tough system now back home, because there is no facilities, and it's very hard for us to practise," said the 19-year-old Ivanovic, the first player to represent Serbia in a major final.

"But tennis is becoming a much more popular sport now. So I hope they will build more facilities and more places where we can practise."

When she honed her game as a youngster, Ivanovic's talent began to surface in an Olympic pool.

"It was very expensive to keep it warm during the winter, and there was not many people using it," Ivanovic said.

"So they emptied the swimming pool, and they put carpet inside, and they placed two tennis courts, and that's where I grew up practising."

The walls were only 18 inches from the sidelines, making crosscourt shots risky to chase down. But Ivanovic escaped serious injury, grooved her game and has been steadily rising in the rankings since her pro debut in 2003 at age 15.

She reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros two years ago, beating No.3-seeded Amelie Mauresmo along the way, and made the fourth round at Wimbledon last year.

She's a threat on any surface, but she'll need to play the match of her young life to beat Henin.

The Belgian is seeking to become the first player since Monica Seles in 1990-92 to win three consecutive French Open titles.

Coincidentally, Seles is easily the best-known player to come from Serbia. She's an ethnic Hungarian and an American citizen but was born in Novi Sad in what was then Yugoslavia.

"I start playing tennis because of Monica Seles," Ivanovic said.

"She was the woman I always looked up to, and I always wanted to achieve what she did."

Ivanovic received a racquet for her fifth birthday and immediately fell in love with the game.

But like other Serb players of her generation, she found it difficult to pursue her passion with the country at war.

"It was tough times, especially 1999 during the bombing," she said.

"I thought it would be impossible to continue, because we didn't know how long it was going to go on.

"We had troubles to travel, because we had problems to get a visa to another country. And we didn't have flights from Serbia. We had to go from Hungary, so we'd take a bus for six or seven hours just to catch a flight.

"So it was very tough, and I thought it would be really impossible to succeed."

Sponsors helped with travel expenses, and Ivanovic seized a chance to train in Switzerland.

By 2004 she was in the top 100, and in 2005 she won the WTA Tour's most improved player award.

Now she's the toast of Serbs everywhere, including Paris. Djokovic watched Ivanovic's victory from the guest section, and Jankovic is also supporting the teen.

"I wish her the best of luck," Jankovic said. "Hopefully she can beat the best out there, which is Justine."

Ivanovic has faced Henin only once, losing in straight sets at Warsaw in 2005.

But Henin knows better than to take the youngster lightly.

"She has matured quite a lot over the last years, so this is a match I'm going to work on very seriously," Henin said.

"It's a final, so I need to be ready and to play my best level of tennis if I want to win."