The Hindu : Sport : Schiavone in final

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Schiavone in final

MOSCOW: Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, the last seed in the women’s tournament, cruised comfortably into the women’s Kremlin Cup final with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko here on Saturday.

In Sunday’s final, eighth-seed Schiavone will face Olga Govortsova of Belarus, who confidently swept aside Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 6-2, 6-1.

“I’m happy with my playing today,” Schiavone said. “I was serving good, returning well. I moved quickly, played aggressively and dominated the play in general.

“I hope that I can manage to play that style tomorrow (Sunday) in the final.”

Bondarenko, who is 36th in the WTA rankings, started the match with an immediate break but Schiavone took four consecutive games for a 4-1 lead. The 25-year-old Ukrainian reduced the arrears with a break in the ninth game but Schiavone made the decisive break in the 10th game to gain a one-set advantage.

In the second, Schiavone underlined her supremacy on the hardcourts of Moscow’s Olympic indoor stadium, producing three more breaks to win the second set to love and the match.

The results: At Moscow: Kremlin Cup: Women: Semifinals: Olga Govortsova bt Alisa Kleybanova 6-2, 6-1; Francesca Schiavone bt Alona Bondarenko 6-4, 6-0. Quarterfinals: Govortsova bt Vera Dushevina 6-3, 6-0; Kleybanova bt Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-3.

Men: Semifinals: Janko Tipsarevic bt Illya Marchenko 6-1, 6-4. Quarterfinals: Mikhail Youzhny bt Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-3; Illya Marchenko bt Evgeny Korolev 0-6, 6-2, 6-3.

At Luxembourg: Luxembourg Open: Semifinals: Timea Bacsinszky bt Yanina Wickmayer 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Quarterfinals: Shahar Peer bt Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 7-6(4), Sabine Lisicki bt Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-2; Bacsinszky bt Katarina Srebotnik 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-4.

At Stockholm: Stockholm Open: Semifinals: Marcos Baghdatis w/o Robin Soderling; Oliver Rochus bt Thomaz Bellucci 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3. Quarterfinals: Baghdatis bt Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-4; Soederling bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6(4), 6-4; Bellucci bt Joachim Johansson 7-6(4), 6-3. — Agencies

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