Defending champion Ana Ivanovic will take on Anabel Medina Garrigues in the final of the Tournament of Champions in Bali.
Medina Garrigues stands between Serb and successful title defence
Defending champion Ana Ivanovic will take on Anabel Medina Garrigues in the final of the Tournament of Champions in Bali.
Ivanovic booked her place with a 6-1 7-5 win over Nadia Petrova, while Garrigues was leading 4-0 in the deciding set of her semi-final when Sabine Lisicki was forced to retire due to a back injury.
Ivanovic gave up just three points in the opening four games as her aggressive baseline play left her Russian opponent reeling.
After claiming the first set, the Serb broke for 1-0 in the second and then held three points for a 3-0 lead before Petrova responded.
Three consecutive breaks saw the players level at 3-3 and Ivanovic then had to fight off a set point at 5-4, firing an impressing backhand winner down the line.
And Ivanovic seized the moment, holding for 5-5, breaking to move ahead, and then serving out the match.
Fight
"I played really well from the beginning," said former world number one and French Open champion Ivanovic, who turns 24 on Sunday.
"Then that game at 2-0 (in the second set), she really raised her game and went for more shots and made less errors and was serving bigger.
"Not breaking her then was kind of a turning point for her a little bit and then I played a bad game to lose my serve. That was crucial and then we had a bit of a fight."
In the second semi-final, Lisicki looked flat right from the start against Medina Garrigues, who claimed the opening set 6-3.
Lisicki was clearly in pain by the middle of the second set and the German left the court for several minutes for treatment after breaking to lead 4-3.
When she returned, Lisicki won two of the next three games to take the match into a third set but, after earning just two points in the first four games, she quit at 30-30 in the fifth.
Garrigues, who saw her first-round opponent Marion Bartoli also withdraw mid-match, said: "I didn't have too many retirements in my career and now I have two in a row.
"I feel bad for Sabine. At the end of the second set she was feeling bad but still won the set, but in the beginning of the third it looked pretty bad."
