French teenager Tatiana Golovin ended a miserable head-to-head run against Ana Ivanovic on Saturday to reach the final of the Amelia Island championship and line up a first WTA Tour singles title.
Standing in her way, however, will be top seed Nadia Petrova who has a first of her own in mind. The Russian's 7-6, 6-1 win over Sybille Bammer gives her a chance to defend a title for the first time in her career.
"It would be something special for me," said world number seven Petrova after reaching her third straight Amelia Island final.
"It would be a new step in my career, so I can prove something else to myself. If I do it once, I can do it a second time in a row. It would be a great feeling if I can do it."
While it would be a great feeling, it would also be a major feat for Petrova, as 19-year-old Golovin has won four of the pair's five previous meetings, the last coming in Indian Wells earlier this year.
Nor can Golovin take anything for granted, however, having just broken a horrible losing streak of her own.
The Moscow-born Frenchwoman ended a five-match losing streak to Ivanovic with a 6-4 3-6 6-4 win in the other semi-final.
NUMEROUS OPPORTUNITIES
"She made me work for it, but we always have tough matches even though I'd never beaten her," Golovin said of her match against her fellow 19-year-old.
"But I'm proud of myself because I was able to keep at it. We both could have played better, I'm just glad I finally got a win over her."
The two battled 55-degree temperatures and 15 mph winds off the Atlantic Ocean.
It wasn't spectacular tennis but it was crowd pleasing and unpredictable with five service breaks in the first eight games of the deciding third set.
Ivanovic had numerous opportunities for more, missing out on seven break point chances in Golovin's first three service games before finally converting on the eighth.
She fought back from a 5-2 deficit to trail 5-4, but Golovin reached for a shot over her head and put it past Ivanovic at match point to secure her first win ever over Serbian player.
Petrova made much quicker work of Bammer. And once she got by the first set tiebreak, which she won 7-4, it took just 30 minutes to wrap up the second set.
"It was all about that first set today," the 24-year-old said. "If I had lost that first set, it would have made life much more difficult for me."
© 2024 Rediff.com -