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TOKYO, Oct 4: Rainer Schuettler will play Sebastien Grosjean in the men’s final of the $860,000 Japan Open after the top two seeds won their semifinals in very different circumstances on Saturday.
Top seed Schuettler, closing in on a spot at the season-ending Masters Cup, pulverised Frenchman Cyril Saulnier 6-3 6-2 with another efficient display.
But Grosjean struggled against the power of third-seeded Thai Paradorn Srichaphan in the first set before coming through 4-6 6-3 6-4 in a high-quality match.
Russian Maria Sharapova overcame a nervous start to reach her first WTA Tour final with a 6-3 7-5 win over Zheng Jie of China in the women’s event.
The Florida-based 16-year-old, whose best result to date was a semi-final in Birmingham in June, lost the first three games to Zheng. But the fifth seed recovered to win six straight games and seize control of the match.
The 1.83-metre Sharapova will play unseeded Aniko Kapros on Sunday after the Hungarian thrashed Arantxa Parra of Spain 6-1 6-2 to advance to her first final.
German Schuettler was never seriously troubled by the unseeded Saulnier, who advanced to his first ATP Tour semi-final after Australian Mark Philippoussis retired with a sore neck during their match on Friday.
Saulnier saved a match point at 5-1 down in the second set and held three break points to pull back to 5-3 but Schuettler quickly quashed any hopes of a fightback.
The Australian Open finalist rattled off five straight points, closing out with a big serve on his second match point after just 76 minutes.
Grosjean, who was tied with Paradorn at 12th in the ATP Champions Race before the match, gained the crucial break in the third game of the final
set with a sharp backhand volley.
The Frenchman staved off a mini-crisis at 15-30 in the seventh game with a string of pummelling forehand passes that left Paradorn shaking his head in disbelief.
Grosjean forced Paradorn into a wild forehand on his first match point to wrap up victory in just over two hours and climb to 11th in the Champions Race.
Victory in Sunday’s final would lift him above Australian Lleyton Hewitt into 10th. The top eight players qualify for the prestigious Masters Cup in Houston from November 8-16.
Grosjean has won both previous meetings against Schuettler, the last time a straight sets victory at Wimbledon in 2001.
Results: (prefix number denotes seeding):
Semifinals:
Men: 2-Sebastien Grosjean (France) beat 3-Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) 4-6 6-3 6-4; 1-Rainer Schuettler (Germany) beat Cyril Saulnier (France) 6-3 6-2
Women: Aniko Kapros (Hungary) beat Arantxa Parra (Spain) 6-1 6-2; 5-Maria Sharapova (Russia) beat Zheng Jie (China) 6-3 7-5
MAURESMO WINS
MOSCOW: Elena Dementieva’s 10-match winning streak came to an abrupt halt on Saturday when the third-seeded Russian was beaten by second seed Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-4 6-1 in the Kremlin Cup semifinals.
Dementieva, who won successive WTA titles in Shanghai and Bali last month, started brightly, opening up a 4-2 lead, but the Frenchwoman ran off the next four games to take the first set.
Mauresmo strolled through the second set in just 25 minutes as Dementieva’s game fell apart.
Mauresmo, ranked seventh in the world, lost in last year’s semi-finals here to eventual champion Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria.
Fourth-seeded Russian Anastasia Myskina, who last week won the Leipzig Grand Prix where she beat French and U.S. Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final, was playing the unseeded Anna Pistolesi of Israel in the second semi-final.
Results (x denotes seeds):
Men
Semifinals: Sargis Sargsian (ARM) bt Vincent Spadea (USA) 6-2, 6-2
Women
Semifinals: Amelie Mauresmo (FRA x2) bt Elena Dementieva (RUS x3) 6-4, 6-1; Anastasia Myskina (RUS x4) Anna Pistolesi (ISR) 6-2, 6-0.—Reuters/AFP
