MOSCOW, Oct 19: Samantha Stosur advanced to her second straight final by beating her doubles partner Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-4 in the semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup on Saturday.

Kuznetsova couldn’t hold serve once in the first set, winning just six of 23 points when serving, while Stosur was broken twice as well. Stosur took a 5-1 lead in the second but then failed to serve out the match twice.

Stosur, who defeated to Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-final on Friday, sealed the victory on her second match point when the Russian sent a shot wide.

The 29-year-old Australian, who won the Osaka title last Sunday, will meet fifth seed Simona Halep of Romania, who saw off Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-1 to record her third win over the 22-year-old Russian player in as many meetings.

Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion and 2010 French Open finalist, took 92 minutes to defeat 29-year-old Kuznetsova, who beat second-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-3 in the last-eight, and move ahead in their head to head record 4-3.

“At the start we were both struggling to hold serve and she had love-40 again on me and my second service again and I was able to get out of that,” Stosur said. “And I think that gave me a little bit of a head up and to win that first set 6-2 was good. It was still pretty tight all the way through with who was going to hold.”

In the other semi-final 22-year-old Halep, who has made quite an impact this year winning four WTA titles, broke twice at the begnning of her match to take a commanding 4-0 lead and eased through the first set to take the opening set in 33 minutes.

The second set was almost a carbon copy of the first as Halep, who beat Pavlyuchenkova’s compatriot Alisa Kleybanova 6-1, 6-1 in the quarters, broke twice again for 4-0 before taking the set and the match in one hour 14 minutes. On Friday, Pavlyuchenkova beat Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova 6-0, 6-4.

In the men’s quarter-finals on Friday, top-seeded Richard Gasquet ousted Russian wild-card entry Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 6-2, while defending champion Andreas Seppi of Italy made it into his fifth semi-final of the season after Edouard Roger-Vasselin retired with a neck strain.

Gasquet will next face Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic who hit 11 aces during his 51-minute win over Russian wildcard Karen Khachanov, 6-4, 6-0 while Seppi will face Mikhail Kukushkin, who ousted Andrei Golubev 6-4, 7-6 in a battle of Kazakhstan qualifiers.

Friday’s results:

Men’s singles:

Quarter-finals: 1-Richard Gasquet (France) bt Teymuraz Gabashvili (Russia) 6-3, 6-2; Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) bt Karen Khachanov (Russia) 6-4, 6-0; Mikhail Kukushkin (Kazakhstan) bt Andrey Golubev (Kazakhstan) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4); 2-Andreas Seppi (Italy) bt Edouard Roger-Vasselin (France) 5-2 —Roger-Vasselin retired.

Women’s singles:

Quarter-finals: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) bt Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) 6-0, 6-4; 5-Simona Halep (Romania) bt Alisa Kleybanova (Russia) 6-1, 6-1; 8-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt 2-Roberta Vinci (Italy) 6-2, 6-3; 7-Samantha Stosur (Australia) bt 4-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) 7-5, 6-4.

TSONGA STRUGGLES PAST HOME HOPE IN VIENNA

VIENNA: French top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga survived against hyped-up local wildcard Dominic Thiem to reach the Austrian Open semi-finals with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 win on Friday.

Tsonga will take on Robin Haase of the Netherlands for a place in Sunday’s final, while second-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany faces Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic in the other semi-final.

The eighth-ranked Frenchman, who won the event in 2011, missed a match point at 5-4 in the final set but converted his second chance in the tie-breaker after 2 hours, 15 minutes as Thiem hit a forehand long.

Tsonga ended with 16 aces but had to save seven break points against Thiem, who was facing his first top 10 opponent.

Dutchman Haase recovered to beat third seed Fabio Fognini 6-7, 6-1, 6-1 as the colourful Italian faded away after winning a tight opening set.

Haas reached his seventh semi-final of the season by defeating fifth-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-6, 6-3. The victory kept the 12th-ranked German in the running to qualify for next month’s ATP World Tour Finals in London.

The 35-year-old Haas will next take on eighth-seeded Rosol, who beat Belgian Ruben Bemelmans 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in his quarter-final.

Results:

Quarter-finals: 1-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) bt Dominic Thiem (Austria) 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3); 2-Tommy Haas (Germany) bt 5-Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 7-6 (12-10), 6-3; Robin Haase (Netherlands) bt 3-Fabio Fognini (Italy) 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 6-1; 8-Lukas Rosol (Czech Republic) bt Ruben Bemelmans (Belgium) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.—Agencies