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| October 15, 2006 | Sunday | Ramazan 21, 1427 |
King reaches first WTA final
BANGKOK, Oct 14: Teenager Vania King reached the first tournament final of her professional career on Saturday by defeating sixth-seeded Meghann Shaughnessy 6-1, 6-4 in an all-American semi-final at the Bangkok Open.
The unseeded 17-year-old, who turned professional in July, used a combination of powerful serves and stinging returns from the baseline to fend off the challenge of Shaughnessy and set up a match with Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn.
Tamarine reached her first final for more than three years by beating a determined Severine Bremond of France 6-2, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
King conceded just 15 games en route to the final, winning all her matches in straight sets.
She dominated the first set but allowed the hard-hitting Shaughnessy to take a two-game lead in the second before pulling back to 3-3 and breaking away to take the match.
Despite winning in straight sets, Tamarine was made to work hard for her victory, with the ninth-seeded Frenchwoman varying her returns and playing a tight serve-and-volley game.
After sustaining a leg injury early in the first set, which required off-court treatment, Bremond made a series of unforced errors in the second and allowed the Thai to take control.
With Bremond's movement restricted, Tamarine pulled away at 3-3 to become the first Thai player in more than a decade to reach a tournament final on home soil.
Results:
Semi-finals:
Vania King (US) beat 6-Meghann Shaughnessy (US) 6-1, 6-4; Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) beat 9-Severine Bremond (France) 6-2, 6-3.
PETROVA IN FINAL
MOSCOW, Oct 14: Russia's Nadia Petrova overcame a groin injury to reach her first Kremlin Cup final with a 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 win over Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova on Saturday.
In Sunday's final the world number five, who is gunning for her sixth title of the year, will face unseeded Anna Chakvetadze, who upset fourth seed Elena Dementieva 7-5, 3-6, 6-0 in the all-Russian second semi-final.
After racing through the first set in 36 minutes, Petrova, who has been playing with a heavily-strapped left thigh for the entire week in Moscow, asked for a medical time-out to treat her right leg early in the second.
The injury seemed to hamper the fifth seed's mobility as the 17-year-old Vaidisova, who beat top seed and world No 1 one Amelie Mauresmo in Friday's quarter-finals, regained her composure to level the match.
The tall Petrova, coming off an impressive victory at the Stuttgart Grand Prix last week, found some reserves in her game in the third set.
Petrova wasted six match points in the 10th game of the final set before finally prevailing 7-3 in the tiebreaker after nearly two-and-a-half hours.
Chakvetadze, 19, will also be playing in her first final in Moscow after completely dominating the more experienced Dementieva in the third set.
She reached the last four without hitting a ball after US Open champion and second seed Maria Sharapova pulled out with a foot injury.
Results:
Anna Chakvetadze (Russia) beat 4-Elena Dementieva (Russia) 7-5, 3-6, 6-0; 5-Nadia Petrova (Russia) beat 8-Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(7-3).—Reuters
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