The number one seed Maria Sakkari is into her fourth career WTA singles final after she overcame Irina-Camelia Begu in a marathon match at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Saturday.
She will meet the number two seed Anett Kontaveit in the title clash. The second seed Kontaveit toppled the number seven seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-4 in the second semifinal to reach her first final of the year as well.
Sakkari needed to win one of the longest matches of the year in a grueling 3 hours and 4 minutes to move into the final. Sakkari fought back from a break down in the third set to attain victory.
Earlier, Kontaveit had a much quicker semifinal victory over Ostapenko, with the World No.9 clinching victory after an hour and 11 minutes of blistering hitting by both players.
Kontaveit has now won an incredible 19 straight matches indoors, which includes title runs at Ostrava, Moscow, and Cluj-Napoca at the end of last season. Kontaveit is the first player with 19 or more consecutive indoor wins since Justine Henin won 22 straight from 2007 Stuttgart through 2010 Stuttgart.
( With inputs from ANI )
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