• WTA Tour

Arn claims second successive upset to roar into final

Greta Arn celebrates her victory over Julia Goerges © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Watson's brave run ends in quarters
  
• Profile: Yanina Wickmayer

Unheralded veteran Greta Arn continued her astonishing form at the ASB Classic in Auckland, despatching fourth seed Julia Goerges in spectacular style to set up a final clash with Yanina Wickmayer.

After sending No. 1 seed Maria Sharapova crashing out at the quarter-final stage, Arn caused another upset by toppling Goerges 7-6(3) 6-3. The Hungarian didn't have it all her own way - Goerges had three set points in the opening stanza only for Arn to escape and force a tiebreak.

Arn took the tiebreak and, despite being broken in the second set, she won two of Goerges' service games to wrap up a well-deserved victory.

Defending champion Wickmayer awaits Arn in the final, the 21-year-old winning her ninth consecutive match at the tournament with a 3-6 7-6(3) 7-5 triumph over China's Peng Shuai.

The No. 2 seed found herself staring defeat in the face when Peng served for the match at 6-3 5-4 and taking a 15-0 lead. However, Wickmayer, perhaps sensing her run was over, began to swing freely and consequently claimed 12 of the next 14 points to take the match into a deciding set.

After finally coming through the two-hour, 52 minute marathon, she said: "I thought maybe the 6-3 5-4 game would be the last game so I gave it all I had. I'm happy I was able to make it through. Now I'll have time to recover before the final. I'll have a good night of sleep. I'll be okay tomorrow."

At the Brisbane International, Andrea Petkovic pulled out all the stops as she produced a fabulous display to down fourth seed Marion Bartoli 6-4 6-2. Petkovic overwhelmed her opponent with bludgeoning groundstrokes and raw power, completing another straight-sets victory to head into the third WTA final of her career.

In the other semi-final, Petra Kvitova battled to a three-set win against Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 4-6 6-2. Both players struggled on their own service games throughout the first set but Kvitova broke three times to sneak it 6-4. Pavlyuchenkova hit back to take the second 6-4 before running out of steam in the decider.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.