Kostanic in 2nd Straight Final at WTA BangalorePosted on February 19, 2006 Croatia's Jelena Kostanic defeated unseeded Hungarian Melinda Czink 6-0, 7-6(2) Saturday to reach her second consecutive tour final at the WTA stop in Bangalore.
"In the first set, she wasn't playing like she could, then she settled down and started to play like I expected her to," Kostanic said. "Then I got tired and lost concentration and lost my serve. Other than that I served well in the match. She likes it when you play hard and flat, so I mixed it up and played a lot of slice, she didn't like that so much." Last week at Pattaya, Kostanic lost in the final to Shahar Peer. "It's my second in two weeks and that's fantastic, I never would have believed it," said the 24-year-old Kostanic. "I'm playing well, but I don't want to put pressure on myself for tomorrow. I need to play the final like any other match and focus point by point." In the final Kostanic will face No. 3 Mara Santangelo, who led 17-year-old Vania King 5-0 when the American retired with stomach illness. "I'm thrilled to be in the final," Santangelo said. "It's not a great way to win a match, but I'm so happy to be in my first final." Santangelo is 0-2 career versus Kostanic. "It's going to be very tough for me," Santangelo added. "I've never beaten her and she's full of confidence as this is her second final in two weeks. I'm going to have to play my best tennis for sure." The doubles final will be No. 2 seeds Sania Mirza and Liezel Huber against No. 4-seeded Russians Anastassia Rodionova and Elena Vesnina. "This is a great partnership," Mirza said. "We are enjoying playing together and I'm learning a lot from Liezel. She's my mentor and there is a reason she's No. 4 in the world (in doubles)." |
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