The precocious Noppawan Lertcheewakarn followed in the footsteps of Tamarine Tanasugarn after moving into the girls' final at Wimbledon following a 7-6 (7/2) 6-3 victory over Tamaryn Hendler of Belgium yesterday.

The world No 4 became only the second Thai in history to do so. Tammy beat Anna Kournikova of Russia to reach the girls' singles final 13 years ago.

It was a surprise run for the 17-year-old who has seldom won singles matches on grass coming to the All England Club. She blasted 32 winners with her double-fisted groundstrokes to win the 85-minute semi-final yesterday.

"I don't like grass. I had early-round losses coming to Wimbledon. But after I adjusted my game a little bit and started to win, I feel comfortable on this surface," said the Chiang Mai native who will play unseeded Briton Laura Robson, a 6-2 6-4 winner over Slovak Romana Tabakova, in today's final.

The promising teenager admitted that she was inspired by the dream run of Tamarine who made headlines by reaching the women's singles semi-finals.

"She is one of my idols. Now that I have reached the final, I'd like to win one more match," Noppawan said.