Belarusian Viktoria Azarenka will challenge rising Czech tennis star Petra Kvitova in the final of the WTA Championships in Istanbul after beating Vera Zvonareva of Russia in straight sets.
It wasn’t the best of days on the serve for Zvonareva, as she handed her rival 12 break-point opportunities and managed to win back only six of them.
Forty-seven unforced errors also didn’t help the Russian much, with the in-form Azarenka collecting a 6-2, 6-3 win.
In the other semifinal, Petra Kvitova came from a set down to prevail over Samantha Stosur of Australia, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
“Tomorrow is the last match. It’s about sudden death,” Azarenka told the tournament’s official website. “It’s the first final here for both of us. We both want to win, and it’ll take everything out of us. I hope we can show the best tennis we can.”
Kvitova will enter the final as a slight favorite, having so far won all her games in Turkey and leading 3-2 in her head-to-head series against Azarenka.