Fourth-seeded Shadisha Robinson may have needed some divine help to reach the women's singles final of the McDonald's Mid-Atlantic Clay Court Tennis Championships.

And she got it when No. 2 seed Tatsiana Uvarova was defaulted after failing to show up on time for their semifinal match yesterday at Salisbury Country Club.

Uvarova didn't arrive until 9:35 a.m. for the scheduled 9 o'clock start, after the car she was using for transportation was towed for being illegally parked.

"We wake up at 7:30 and the car was towed," said Uvarova, Virginia Commonwealth University's No. 1 player. "We had to go and get it because my rackets were in the car."

Uvarova didn't notify tournament officials until after 9, and at that point, the clock was started for her to show or be defaulted. Players are given 15 minutes once the clock begins, then games are taken away and finally the match.

"We had to call her," tournament director Scott Steinour said. "I called her at home and there was no answer. Then I called her doubles partner and told her to have Tatsiana call me. This was 12 after [9]. She called me back at 20 after and said she was on her way and would be 10 more minutes."

With Robinson's approval, Steinour considered docking Uvarova five games to start the match, but after consulting with tournament referee Bill Wojeck and tournament organizer Bill Barnes, the decision was made to default Uvarova.

"It was very unfortunate, but you can't bend the rules for somebody because it can come back and bite you," Steinour said. "We didn't want to do it, but it was the right thing to do."

Robinson, who just graduated from South Florida, where she played No. 1, will meet top-seeded Petra Rampre in today's final at 10 a.m.

Rampre, the defending champion, needed little more than an hour to dispatch fifth-seeded Jenny Kuehn 6-2, 6-1 in the only semifinal. Kuehn had upset No. 3 Alison Ojeda in the quarterfinals.

As far as Robinson was concerned, the rest from not having to play will be beneficial in today's match.

"I feel really bad, now that she's finally shown up," said Robinson, who is from Hilton Head, S.C. "But my body is not feeling so great, so I'll take it. I'm just really tired. I haven't been playing much and this has been a long week. You don't want to win like this, but this should help me for the finals."

Rampre, who has dropped only seven games in three matches, was penalized a point for racket abuse, and it cost her the opening game of the second set. Other than that, the native of Slovenia was able to outlast Kuehn in their baseline rallies and force the former University of Michigan standout to commit a number of errors.

"The first couple of games, she was pretty good," said Rampre, who is ranked 390th on the women's pro tour. "She was hanging in there, but maybe her fitness bothered her, I don't know."

Rampre iced down her right elbow after the match and said it had been bothering her since she changed rackets last fall.

In the women's doubles final, the unseeded team of Robinson and Caitlin Collins rallied to overcome the fourth-seeded duo of Ojeda and Melissa Schaub 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

YESTERDAY'S RESULTS

Mixed doubles - Semifinals: Rampre-Mohammed d. Haarhoff-Spracklin 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Borisova-Ambert d. Hammond-Huey 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. Final today at 2 p.m.

FRIDAY'S RESULTS

Women's doubles - Semifinals: Ojeda-Schaub d. Fleishman-Rampre 6-4, 6-3; Collins-Robinson d. Fahoum-Haarhoff 6-4, 6-3