BANGALORE, India - Mara Santangelo and Yaroslava Shvedova maintained their rock solid unblemished runs at the Sony Ericsson International Saturday, both winning straight set semifinals to reach the championship match at the $175,000, Tier III event.
Santangelo, the top seed and defending champion, ran her record in Bangalore to 9-0 on Saturday evening, breezing past the Ukraine's Olga Savchuk, 61 60, in just 49 minutes. The early goings in each set seemed somewhat tense but once the crafty Italian got her momentum she managed to cruise.
"The first couple of games of both sets were critical; that made the rest of the match easy," Santangelo said. "I had a strategy and I played so well today, serving well and not making any mistakes. I'm very happy with the way things went for me today, and I'm very excited about being in my second final at the Sony Ericsson International."
Santangelo was playing Savchuk for the first time; she has another first time foe on Sunday, namely Shvedova. The Russian teen beat Israeli veteran Tzipora Obziler similarly in straight sets, but it was by no means as easy.
Obziler, 33, came out quickly, racing to a 5-2 lead and holding 40-15 in that game, with the first set nearly a foregone conclusion. But Shvedova saved two set points and turned it around, earning a 75 62 win in one hour, 34 minutes.
"I'm an aggressive player, and it was a good match for me after a tough start; I think I was tight in the beginning and I couldn't find my game but I relaxed and it got much better," Shvedova said.
Prior to this week, the Russian's best showings on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour were two second round finishes, at Philadelphia in 2005 and at Memphis in 2006.
"I'm so happy. Yesterday I was happy but today I'm 10 times happier! I love the fans in Bangalore, they keep supporting me. I've never played Santangelo but I'm looking forward to it. I'm just going to go out there and play."
Savchuk was playing her first Tour semifinal, while Obziler was in her second, having already gone that far at the Tier III in Guangzhou late last season.
The Sony Ericsson International made its debut as a Tour stop in 2006, with Santangelo beating Jelena Kostanic Tosic in the final for the inaugural title.
Sunday's doubles final, which begins at 6pm local time and precedes the singles final, will pit top seeds Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung against No.4 seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Alla Kudryavtseva. Chan and Chuang are coming off back-to-back runner-up finishes at the Australian Open and Pattaya City. Hsieh and Kudryavtseva have had a great week and should provide a tough test, however - they took out No.2-seeded pair Sania Mirza and Santangelo in a tight semifinal. (WTA)
