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ROTTERDAM (Netherlands), Feb 24: Michael Llodra of France registered his fourth straight sets win at the World Indoor Tournament this week to beat Ivo Karlovic 7-5, 7-6 in the first semi-final on Saturday.
Llodra, looking for his second title of the year after winning the tournament in Adelaide in January, will face Robin Soderling of Sweden in Sunday’s final.
Soderling, world number 59, wrapped up a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Frenchman Gilles Simon in 51 minutes to reach his first ATP final in two years.
The 58-ranked Llodra became the first player in the tournament to break Karlovic’s service in the 11th game of the opening set.
Llodra, with a solid serve and volley performance, gave the 2,08-metre Croatian only one break opportunity and settled the match by winning the second-set tiebreak 7-4 to reach his third ATP tour final on Dutch soil.
Soderling dominated his match against the 36-ranked Simon from the first ball and took maximum profit from his break chances, converting all five.
ALL RUSSIAN FINAL
DOHA: Maria Sharapova will face Vera Zvonareva in an all-Russian final at the Qatar Open after the fourth seed beat Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday.
Unseeded Zvonareva reached her second final of the year with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over China’s Li Na in the first semi-final.
Sharapova failed to find much consistency but when she hit her stride the Russian was too powerful for Radwanska, who won their previous meeting at the 2007 US Open.
Radwanska, seeded 16, took advantage of several Sharapova errors to go 2-0 up in the first set and although the Australian Open champion broke back in the third game she needed to fight off three break points before holding for 2-2.
Three superb winning returns helped Sharapova break a second time to lead 4-3 but Radwanska continued to pressure her.
Although Sharapova broke for a 1-0 lead in the second set, she then dropped her own serve to love with a double fault. The world No 5 regained the lead with a break for 3-2 and a final break gave her the match.
AMERICANS PREVAIL
SAN JOSE (California): Top seed Andy Roddick beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6, 6-1 on Saturday to set up a San Jose final with Czech Radek Stepanek.
Fourth seed Stepanek overcame America’s Robby Ginepri 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the other semi-final.
Garcia-Lopez pushed Roddick all the way in the first set but the American always had an answer, stringing together a series of points to win the tie-break 7-2.
Roddick broke the Spaniard three times in the second set and won the contest on his first match point when Garcia-Lopez missed a forehand volley.
After failing to seal the first set on a tie-break when he held a two-point advantage, Stepanek overwhelmed Ginepri by mixing a precise serve and volley game with accurate, well disguised shots from the baseline.—Reuters
