Hungarian teenager Agnes Szavay and top seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia will battle for the Open Gaz the France title in Sunday’s final.
In today’s semis seventh-seeded Szavay, who won her first two singles titles (Palermo and Beijing) and reached the US Open quarterfinals last year, defeated Elena Dementieva 6-3 1-6 7-5. Chakvetadze advanced to the title match with a 2-6 6-2 6-0 win over local favorite Marion Bartoli. Bartoli made a promising start but then collapsed against Chakvetadze, who made her breakthrough last year by winning four titles and reaching the US Open semifinals.
World No.7 Chakvetadze and world No.20 Szavay played only once so far, in the second round of last year’s Roland Garros, and the Russian was the winner then, in three sets though.
As for their career records in finals, Chakvetadze can’t ask for more as she won all six of her career finals, four of which were last year, while Szavay’s record is 2-1, and all the three finals she played last season. However, the one final Szavay lost, at the Pilot Pen to Svetlana Kuznetsova, was not a complete loss, if I may say, because she had to retire due to back injury (actually, Szavay won the first set).
The champion of the $600,000 Open Gaz the France will collect $95,500.
Marija,
Thanks for adding OTB to your Facebook profile! I appreciate your support.
God bless!
Bartoli’s collapse wasn’t that bad when you consider she was playing the last two sets with one hand. It’s always some injury, though, isn’t it?