Australia’s Samantha Stosur and Romania’s Simona Halep advanced to the Kremlin Cup final after both players eliminated tough semifinal opponents on Saturday.
Stosur reached the final after eliminating two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-4 while Simona Halep ousted Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-1.
“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.”
A week ago Stosur won her second title of the season at the HP Open in Osaka, Japan. She will have a chance to earn her sixth career title if she beats Halep in the final. Stosur also reached the final in Moscow a year ago but lost to Caroline Wozniacki.
Halep, ranked 18th in the world, has won four titles this season which vaulted her up in the world’s top 20. The Romanian admitted that the match was not easy as the score indicated.
“The score, it looks like it was very easy, but it wasn’t,” Halep said. “I moved very well and I hit the ball very strong. She didn’t move very well.”
