Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska went through their semifinal matches, Radwanska for the second year in a row, but it was not without drama.
You know that Radwanska has had a shoulder injury, so she was not in a favorable position, but even more bizarrely, her opponent, Andrea Petkovic had to rush away from the court to vomit at 0-40 down in the fifth game of the second set. Petkovic won the first set, but the bad lunch she said she had had gave Radwanska an advantage and the Pole advanced to the final with a 4-6 6-0 6-4 victory.
Top-seeded Zvonareva, who won the Baku Cup in Azerbaijan last week, lost a tough first set against Ana Ivanovic and needed seven set points to close the second set. In the third the Russian had a 5-1 lead when Ivanovic won three straight games. After that Zvonareva finally finished the match. Our reader John Bolan, who is at the tournament, is reporting that the crucial factor in Ivanovic’s loss was the bad fall which injured her knee. Final score: 5-7 6-4 6-4.
