Sunday, October 18, 2009
OSAKA: Australian third seed Samantha Stosur on Saturday dashed Caroline Wozniacki’s title defence to reach the final at the Japan Open women’s tennis tournament.
The 25-year-old Stosur, who also eliminated 2002 champion Jill Craybas of the United States on Friday, fired 12 aces to score a 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 victory over the Danish top seed.
Stosur, ranked 15th against Wozniacki’s sixth, has yet to win a WTA title, but has won four ITF titles, three of them in Japan, including one here in Osaka.
In the final on Sunday, Stosur will play fourth seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy, who defeated Indian star Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-1 in the other semifinal earlier in the day.
Meanwhile in Linz, Austria top seeds Flavia Pennetta and Agnieszka Radwanska advanced to the semifinals of the WTA event in Linz on Friday.
Pennetta was stretched in the opening set of her match with Romania’s Ioana Raluca Olaru, but the Italian took control in the second to secure a 7-5, 6-2 victory. Radwanska fought off two set points against seventh-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova in their second-set tie-break before claiming a 6-3, 7-6 (11/9) victory on her fourth match point.
Third-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer also won, beating eighth seed Sara Errani of Italy 7-5, 6-3, but fourth-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro failed to reach the semifinals, losing 7-5, 6-4 to Czech Petra Kvitova.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
