Seoul: Polish top seed Agnieszka Radwanska will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Sunday`s final of the Korea Open after the Russian squeezed past Francesca Schiavone in a thriller.
While Radwanska took just over an hour to thrash Spain`s Lara Arruabarrena 6-0, 6-2, Pavlyuchenkova needed nearly two-and-a-half hours to see off Schiavone.
In a match that could have gone either way and saw only two breaks in 24 service games, the Russian third seed dug deep against the spirited Italian to win 7-6 (13/11), 7-6 (8/6).
She had to save three set points in the first set tie-break and battled back from 3-0 down in the second set breaker to close it out.
"I`m so tired right now, to be honest," Pavlyuchenkova said.
"I`m happy to be in the finals, but I`m still thinking about the match, how tough it was.
"The first set was amazing. We were both playing good tennis, but I was so tired afterwards and I knew I had to hold serve in the second set, because if I didn`t, it would just be over," she said.
Radwanska hardly seemed to break sweat as her powerful service overwhelmed Arruabarrena from the start.
"It was really hot out there but I played at 100 percent throughout the match," said Radwanska, who finished in style winning 15 consecutive points.
Radwanska leads Pavlyuchenkova 2-1 in their head-to-head meetings, although only one of those came in the last four years -- a tight clash in Radwanska`s favour at the US Open a few weeks ago.
"I have to be aggressive but also consistent," Pavlyuchenkova said. "We just played at the US Open and she`s very consistent, she never misses, and if I make a lot of mistakes it`ll be an easy victory for her."
AFP
First Published: Sunday, September 22, 2013, 00:49
