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Sixth-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova will meet Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in the Estoril Open final on Saturday.
Makarova reached her second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final in as many weeks after beating eighth-seeded Anna Lena Groenefeld – the only semi-finalist to have competed at the Estadio Nacional before – by a 6-3, 6-1 score line in 58 minutes on Central Court.
The 20-year-old Makarova dropped just 12 points on serve and converted four of six break point opportunities to record her 13th win of the year (13-7 record). Last week the World No. 43 reached the Fes final (l. to Medina Garrigues) last week.
“I played pretty good today,” said Makarova. “She is a good player but I played my best tennis, just being aggressive. I’m so happy to make my second final in two weeks, because when I came here, I was a little bit tired so I didn’t think I that I could make the same result, but I just played every point, every match and I’ve come through.”
Groenefeld hit six double faults in her first tour-level semi-final since Istanbul in 2006. The World No. 57 dropped to 11-11 on the season.
“It was just not my day,” said Gronefeld. “I didn’t feel the ball at all, it was very difficult, and I was struggling. She played solid and didn’t give me any free points. On my side, there is not much to say.
“It was the first time I had played her. I saw a little bit of her semi-final but didn’t really know what to expect. Today was just nothing from my side.”
Wickmayer, who had not won back-to-back tour-level matches this year prior to arriving at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour International Series event, advanced to her second career final (2008 Birmingham) when seventh-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer retired with a right foot injury after just fourteen minutes of the pair’s semi-final on Centralito.
World No. 88 Wickmayer, who was leading Peer 3-0 in the first set, lost to Kateryna Bondarenko in her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final at Birmingham in June 2008. She has a 14-9 record on the season.
Peer explained her decision to retire. “From the beginning of the week I had pain in my right foot and I managed to finish my three singles matches and a doubles – I don’t know how actually – but yesterday at the end of the match, during the third set, I did something even worse to my foot,” she said. “I tried to recover as much as I could, but I had to play very early this morning…I can’t really walk on my foot that much unfortunately. It’s the first time in my life I’ve had to retire from a match.
“I have an inflammation on my foot. It just needs rest and it will recover, but I kept playing on it because I wanted to keep playing this tournament, but I guess it was too much for today.”
Wickmayer looked ahead to Saturday’s final, saying: “Makarova has been playing very well. She had a great week last week, she played the final. She reached the final this week and beat some good players during both weeks, so for sure she is playing well the last few weeks.
“She’s had a lot of matches on clay, so have I, so I think it’s going to be a good match. I’ve never played her before, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. It’s going to be the one who is the fittest on the court and who has the best start tomorrow will win I think.”
Thursday: Makarova Ends Kirilenko's Title Defence
Wednesday: Top Seed Benesova Falls In Second Round
Montanes Saves 2 M.P. To Clinch Title