OEIRAS, Portugal: Third seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova fought back from a first-set whitewash to beat unseeded Romina Oprandi 0-6, 6-3, 6-1 yesterday to reach the women’s final of the ATP/WTA Portugal Open.
The 19th-ranked Russian winner will bid for her second trophy this season after Monterrey, when she plays fourth seed and 2012 finalist Carla Suarez Navarro, who beat Estonian defending champion Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 6-1 in 66 minutes.
The Spanish winner benefited from seven double-faults by her Estonian opponent.
“I don’t like to complain, but it was tough to start the match. I didn’t recover well. But I’m happy with how I responded,” Pavlyuchenkova said.
Meanwhile, top seed David Ferrer reached the men’s semi-finals. Ferrer rallied from 4-2 down in the second set to see off gritty Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-4, 7-6 (7/2). Joining Ferrer in the last four was Swiss second seed Stanislas Wawrinka.
The Swiss reached the semi-finals for the second year running through his defeat of Portuguese wild card, and crowd darling, number 113-ranked Gastao Elias, 6-4, 6-4. Number three Andreas Seppi also joined the party as the Italian beat Spain’s eighth seed Tommy Robredo 6-4, 6-3 to next take on Ferrer.
Spanish qualifier Pablo Carreno-Busta belied his 229 ranking with a knockout of Italian fourth seed Fabio Fognini, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
He will face Wawrinka in a first-time meeting after winning the first ATP quarter-final of his career.
Ferrer, 31, said: “This an historic tournament and one that I’ve always dreamed of winning.”
The Spaniard, a late drawcard replacement for Juan Martin Del Potro, who is now out of next week’s Madrid Masters with the virus which kept him from Portugal, beat Hanescu in one hour, 39 minutes, helped by three breaks of serve.
“It was a very tough match, Victor played very well and, despite being better than the first day, I was lucky in the second set in some important moments,” said Ferrer.Afp
