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Medina Garrigues to face Ivanovic in Bali final

Anabel Medina Garrigues was again the recipient of some good fortune © Getty Images

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For the second time in as many days, Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues was the beneficiary of a retirement, as she was handed her way into the final of the Tournament of Champions in Bali.

After coming through her quarter-final against Marian Bartoli only after the Frenchwoman - who squandered match points - had been forced to retire through injury, history repeated itself as Sabine Lisicki was forced to retire from their semi-final with the score 6-4 3-6 4-0 in Medina Garrigues' favour.

Lisicki seemed to be struggling from the off and required treatment on a back complaint after breaking to lead 4-3 in the second set. She came back to win the games she needed to force a deciding frame - but the effort proved to be too much, as the back injury eventually caused her to retire with Medina Garrigues on course for victory.

Medina Garrigues will now face Ana Ivanovic in the final in Bali, after the Serbian overcame Nadia Petrova 6-1 7-5.

Ivanovic, who will look to celebrate her 24th birthday with a victory on Sunday, opened up the contest in blistering fashion - with her impressive array of baseline strokes proving too much for Petrova to handle, as she ran away with the first set.

Ivanovic was again on form to open up a 2-0 lead in the second stanza, but Petrova finally found a rhythm to save three break points and force her way back into the match - levelling matters at 3-3 before creating a set point opportunity on Ivanovic's serve at 5-4.

Ivanovic held her nerve to fire a backhand winner down the line before holding her serve, before engineering a break of her own. Petrova made her work for it, but she eventually served out the contest after the Russian fired a return long.

"I played really well from the beginning," Ivanovic told reporters. "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."

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