TENNIS – Tomorrow’s final for the WTA Oeiras is set: No.7 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova will face top seed Carla Suarez Navarro for the title and the 280 points at stake. Kuznetsova reached her first final in over three years dismissing fellow compatriot Elena Vesnina. Suarez Navarro beat qualifier Irina-Camelia Begu. Joshua Bosco
Tomorrow’s final for the WTA Oeiras is set: No.7 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova will face top seed Carla Suarez Navarro for the title and the 280 points at stake.
Kuznetsova reached her first final in over three years dismissing fellow compatriot Elena Vesnina 6-3 6-1 in just 74 minutes. The players exchanged breaks early in the first set but from 2-2 it was all about Kuznetsova: she went on to win ten of the following twelve games, including six consecutive in the second set, completely dominating her opponent in every aspect of the game. The 28 year old from Saint Petersburg fired 5 aces to Vesnina’s 0, won 67% of her service points, 50% of returning points and converted 5 out of 16 break points, breaking in every game she had the opportunity.
This final will be Kuznetsova’s first in over 38 months: her last was back in February 2011, when she lost 6-1 6-3 to the then World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in Dubai. Her last tournament win dates back to August 2010, when she beat Agnieszka Radwanska to claim the Mercury Insurance Open tournament, her 13th career title. The Russian holds a 13-19 losing record in finals but has won all four International-level tournaments in which she has reached the final round.
Carla Suarez Navarro had to win her most difficult match in the tournament so far to reach the final: she beat qualifier Irina-Camelia Begu 7-6(3) 6-1, losing as many games as she had done in the rest of the tournament.
The match was decided in the first set. Begu twice came back from a break down to force the set to a tiebreaker in which she recovered her first minibreak but then went on to lose her serve twice more to hand the opener to Suarez Navarro.
The Romanian never recovered from this disappointment and Navarro took less than half an hour to win the second set and close the match 7-6 6-1.
This will be Suarez Navarro’s sixth attempt at winning a WTA tournament and her third consecutive final here in Portugal, having lost to Kaia Kanepi in 2012 and to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova last year.
Tomorrow’s match will be the fifth encounter between Kuznetsova and Suarez Navarro, with the Russian leading the Head2Head 3-1.
