OSAKA, Japan—Top-seeded Samantha Stosur reached the final of the Japan Women's Open on Saturday with a 7-6 (6), 6-2 victory against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
Stosur is looking for her third title in Osaka and will play fifth-seeded Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, who reached her first WTA final with a 6-2, 7-5 win against Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand.
Stosur said "my game got better in the second set and hers maybe dropped a bit."
Diyas needed just 1 hour, 7 minutes to dispatch Kumkhum, breaking her opponent three times in the first set and twice in the second.
Trailing 4-6 in the tiebreaker, Stosur saved two set points and reeled off the final four points of the breaker to take the opening set.
"I have to use my experience, and maybe everything I've learnt over the years, to beat these younger players," Stosur told WTATennis.com. "When I was in that position playing the older players, I'd feel I had nothing to lose — your ranking's not as good, you're younger, you're not expected to win, so you go out there and really go for it. If you win that's fantastic, and if you lose you weren't expected to win anyway.
"Now I have to make sure I'm playing my best tennis against anyone. Everyone's got the ability to beat anyone. You can't take anything for granted, even when your opponent is 20 or 21 years old."