Washington: Former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova dropped just four games to reach her first WTA final in over a year as the Russian defeated Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Citi Open tennis tournament here Saturday.
Kuznetsova, who won the Washington tournament in 2014, will meet Donna Vekic in the final who defeated Chinese Saisai Zheng 7-5, 6-3.
Petkovic got off to a quick start with the German winning 10 of the first 11 points. But she did not win another game in the set as Kuznetsova took advantage of 15 unforced errors by the German to win six consecutive games and took three of four break point chances.
The Russian continued her and never trailed in the second set. Kuznetsova, who last reached a final at the BNP Paribas Open in March of 2017, said that she originally came back too soon from injury but now feels in form.
“I didn’t expect such a good result so fast, because I haven’t been playing so well after my injury, after my surgery, so it took me some time to get back,” the former World No.2 said.
De Minaur in final
Washington: Australian Alex de Minaur became the second finalist of the Citi Open tennis tournament, defeating 16th seed Russian Andrey Rublev, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 in the men’s singles semifinals. The 19-year-old from Sydney will square off against top seed Alexander Zverev in the final. Zverev has defeated Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (10-8) 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals.