BALI, Indonesia (AP)—Ana Ivanovic of Serbia will play Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain in Sunday’s final of the WTA Tournament of Champions.
Defending champion Ivanovic defeated Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-1, 7-5 in the first semifinal on Saturday to reach her first final since winning the title a year ago. Medina Garrigues was leading 6-3, 4-6, 4-0 against Sabine Lisicki when the third-seeded German retired with a back injury.
Lisicki, who said she took painkillers before the match, first had treatment in the second set but still managed to break serve and win the set to take the match into a decider.
However, the 22-year-old German noticeably lost power in the third set and she pulled out at 30-30 while trailing 4-0.
“I was fighting but unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish,” Lisicki said.
Medina Garrigues reached the semifinals when Marion Bartoli of France pulled out of their quarterfinal match with the Spanish player leading 4-6, 7-6 (7), 1-0.
“I didn’t have too many retirements in my career and now I have two in a row,” Medina Garrigues said. “I feel bad for Sabine.”
The 29-year-old Spaniard will play the 18th final of her career against Ivanovic in the final tournament on the WTA calendar.
Ivanovic leads the head-to-head 2-1. The Serb said she had had a disturbed night’s sleep after an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale hit the island at about 11pm local time on Friday.
“I jumped out of the bed. I had no idea what was going on. Everything started moving and cracking, and it was the first time I was in an earthquake,” Ivanovic said.
The lack of sleep didn’t seem to affect Ivanovic as she raced through the first set, twice breaking Petrova’s serve. Both players struggled to hold serve in the second set, but Ivanovic secured a crucial break in the 11th game to go ahead 6-5 and then held serve.
“The second set there was a bit of fight and we had few breaks,” Ivanovic said. “I was serving a few times and my serve was really very slow, not much on it in the second set. I’m very happy that I managed to close it in two sets.”
After a dismal first set, Petrova battled back into the contest, but couldn’t make enough of her break point opportunities.
“In the second set, I started moving her out, giving her a bit harder time, and I felt like I had a chance to pull off that second set,” said Petrova.
“She hit a few unbelievable lines when I had break points. Those kind of matches, it’s a bit frustrating because you feel like you have a chance to get back, get into the third set and control the game, but you totally don’t have luck.”