In form Sania Mirza earned herself a shot at her seventh title of the season by reaching the final of the WTA Guangzhou Open with Swiss partner Martina Hingis, here on Friday.
The US Open champions beat Israel’s Julia Glusshko and Swden’s Rebecca Peterson 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals of $250,000 hard court tournament.
Sania and Hingis converted five break points and lost their serve twice in the match which lasted one hour and 11 minutes.
The winners saved five breakpoints out of seven they faced and it proved crucial in the outcome of the match.
Sania has won five titles with Hingis this season, including US Open and Wimbledon. They also won three title in row at the start of the partnership —Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston.
Meanwhile, in singles, Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic came from three points down in the 11th game of the deciding set to break Yanina Wickmayer’s serve and advance to the Guangzhou International final with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 win.
Jankovic also fought off a match point in the 10th game of the final set to win the match.
Denisa Allertova of Czech Republic continued her strong form with a 7-5, 6-2 win over No. 3 Sara Errani of Italy in the second semifinal.
Saturday’s match against Jankovic will be Allertova’s first career WTA final.
Cibulkova beats Ivanovic
TOKYO: Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia beat defending champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 7-6 (5), 6-3 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Toray Pan-Pacific Open. She will next face seventh-seeded Agniezka Radwanska of Poland, who beat Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2.
Cibulkova broke back twice in the first set before taking the tiebreaker and then broke twice more in the second to repeat her victory over Ivanovic in the first round of the US Open.
Earlier, Caroline Wozniacki overcame Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 after saving five break points in the fifth game of the deciding set.
Bencic defeated third-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain 7-6 (1), 6-1. Bencic saved three straight break points in the fourth game of the second set to close out the win.
Wawrinka withdraws
METZ (France): Top-seeded Stan Wawrinka has withdrawn from the Open de Moselle with an ankle injury. The French Open champion was scheduled to face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarterfinals at the indoor hard-court tournament on Friday.
In the semifinals, Kohlschreiber will be up against the winner of an all-French contest between third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Mahut.