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Sports

Cornet knocks off Radwanska in Poland

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Katowice, Poland (SportsNetwork.com) - Alize Cornet of France disappointed the home crowd Saturday with an upset of Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals of the BNP Katowice Open.

It was all Radwanska in the first set, but the fourth-seeded Cornet made a stunning turnaround to claim a 0-6, 6-2, 6-4 triumph. She'll next play Italy's Camila Giorgi, who pulled off the second surprise of the day with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 win over third-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.

Cornet had a breakthrough win earlier this year with a semifinal victory over Serena Williams in Dubai. She couldn't pull off the tournament title, though, falling to Venus in the final.

The 24-year-old native of Nice will now play in her eighth career final. She has three career titles, the last coming last year in Strasbourg.

Radwanska was the heavy favorite in her home country and had a relatively easy road to the semis with a trio of straight-set wins. She had also beaten Cornet in all three previous meetings without dropping a set, including a victory in the fourth round at Indian Wells last month.

After blitzing through the first set at love on Saturday, the top-seeded Radwanska found herself on the other end of the spectrum as Cornet won the first four games of the second en route to squaring the match.

Radwanska then again turned the tables and won the first three games of the third, but Cornet did not waver and won the next four. Radwanska regrouped and broke serve to make it 4-4, but Cornet broke right back and held in the final game to complete the rally.

There were no breaks of serve in the first set of the second semifinal, but Giorgi dominated the tiebreaker and carried that momentum into the second set as she opened a 3-1 lead and went on to hold serve throughout to reach her first career WTA final.

The 22-year-old Italian had played just two events in 2014 and had never reached the quarterfinals of a WTA event prior to this week. She advanced to the fourth round at Indian Wells last month and was a second-round loser to Cornet at the Australian Open in her only previous starts this year.

This week's champion will collect $43,000.