GOING STRONG: Russian player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova returns the ball to Swiss player Romina Oprandi during the women’s singles semi-final match of the Portugal Open tennis tournament in Oeiras. (AFP)
AFP/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.
“It’s great to be in my second final here, it was a good match for me today,” she said.
“I did have last year’s final in my mind. She started strong and I was a bit nervous. I served well and kept my intensity in the important moments.”
Pavlyuchenkova said that, after winning a quarter-final the day before which took almost three hours, she was just not fully recovered - especially with a morning start.
“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,” she said.
“I turned it around, kept believing and kept playing my game.” Pavlyuchenkova had few early answers for Oprandi’s blistering clay-court game in the quick opening set on a sunny spring day after a week of cold.
But, once she hit her stride, the seed began to dominate as the initial flush of success faded for the 53rd-ranked challenger, playing only the third WTA semi-final of her career.
Oprandi saved match points as Pavlyuchenkova tried to serve out for victory, losing serve in the process for 6-1 in final set. But a game later it was all over when she broke back.
“I’m not completely happy with my game, especially with how I started today,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who will play her first career final on clay after winning four on hardcourts, including Monterrey three times.
“But I have some positives in that I won the match.”
Oprandi came to the court after beating Russia’s French and US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarter-finals at the Estadio Nacional.
Her previous best showings were WTA semi-finals in Palermo in 2010, and ‘s-Hertogenbosch a year later. She will return to the ranking top 50 after dealing with injury in 2012.
Victory in Saturday’s final would make Pavlyuchenkova the second Russian champion here after Maria Kirilenko five years ago.
Nadal hits out at Puerto verdict
Madrid: Claycourt king Rafael Nadal has blasted the decision by a Spanish judge not to reveal the names of the athletes implicated in the infamous Operation Puerto doping case, Spanish press reported yesterday.
On Tuesday judge Julia Patricia Santamaria refused to allow the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) access to the sachets of blood that were seized in the Spanish police operation against Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, and even ordered that they be destroyed.
Unless that decision is reversed, it means the world may never know the names of those people who used Fuentes’s services in order to gain an unfair advantage in their sport.
“I find it unfair that the names of the cheats are not given, whether they’re Spanish or not,” said Nadal, according to the AS and Marca newspapers.