Moscow, Russia – Samantha Stosur and Caroline Wozniacki won semifinal matches on Saturday and will meet for the title at the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament.
The top-seeded Stosur rallied for a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic after the third-seeded Wozniacki also went the distance in a 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 triumph against Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson.
Stosur hasn't won a tournament since capturing the U.S. Open crown last September for her breakthrough Grand Slam title, but she has been close lately. The Aussie star was a semifinal loser to Kai-Chen Chang last week in Osaka and also lost in the Tokyo semifinals last month.
Ivanovic, who hasn't hoisted a trophy since last November in Bali, won a sloppy first set Saturday that featured four breaks of serve -- three forced by the former world No. 1 Serb. Stosur, though, picked up her game in the second set and broke twice before winning the final four games with a pair of breaks in the third to finish the nearly two-hour match.
Stosur is back in a final for the first time since February, when she lost to Victoria Azarenka in Doha. She owns a career mark of just 3-11 in title matches.
Wozniacki is 19-11 in finals, including 1-1 this year. She lost to Angelique Kerber in Copenhagen back in April and beat Kaia Kanepi in Seoul last month.
Arvidsson made it tough on Wozniacki on Saturday, breaking serve twice when the former world No. 1 had the match on her racket. Wozniacki failed to hold at 6-5 in the second set, then came up short in the tiebreaker, and again was unable to convert at 5-3 in the third set before breaking Arvidsson to win a 2 1/2-hour match that featured 18 total breaks of serve.
Stosur owns a 3-2 mark against Wozniacki and has won both meetings on hard courts. The two have never met in a final and will play for the first time since the quarters of the 2010 Tour Championships, a 6-4, 6-3 Stosur triumph.
Sunday's winner will collect a first prize of $122,000.
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