Home favourite Pavlyuchenkova to face Begu in Moscow final
Moscow (AFP) - Home favourite and sixth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova advanced to the Kremlin Cup final following a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Czech teenager Katerina Siniakova on Saturday.
It will be the Russian's tenth WTA final as she gets set to take on Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu, who ousted another Czech player and fourth seed Lucie Safarova 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 6-3 in their first ever meeting.
The 23-year-old Pavlyuchenkova is now just one victory away from becoming the fourth Russian woman in the tournament's history to win the Kremlin Cup.
The first three were Anastasia Myskina (who won it twice in 2003 and 2004, Anna Chakvetadze (2006) and Elena Dementieva (2007).
Pavlyuchenkova, who is 30th in the world rankings was in command from the start, breaking her rival twice to comfortably win the opening set .
The second set was almost a carbon copy of the first as the Moscow resident again broke twice to book her place in the final after one hour 14 minutes on court.
"My opponent didn't play too bad today," Pavlyuchenkova said.
"She wasn't frightened and started well. I think I did everything right today (Saturday)."
Meanwhile, in the second semi-final the first set proved a tight affair with no breaks of serve before Begu won the tie-break for a one frame advantage.
Safarova, who reached this year's Wimbledon semi-finals, then stepped up a gear to twice break her rival's serve and level the match at one set a piece after one hour and 40 minutes on court.
Begu then broke in the eighth game to go 5-3 up in the decider and held on to win the match as she booked a place in her fourth career final but first in two years.
"I don't feel any pressure here, I'm just enjoying the tournament and it seems be working perfectly so far," Begu said.
"Of course I'm happy to get a final spot here after struggling with a shoulder injury last year."
