PETE ZIEBRON in PHOENIX
Portugal's Michelle Larcher De Brito knocked out the tournament's #1 & 3 seeds en route to the Final. Pete Ziebron Images
Despite the fact that rain was forecast for the Valley of the Sun, the Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic proceeded as scheduled on Saturday at the Phoenix Country Club. Portugal's Michelle Larcher De Brito defeated Mandy Minella of Luxembourg and Sessil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan rallied from a set down to beat American Madison Keys.
Earlier in the week, Michelle Larcher De Brito defeated #1 seed Irina Falconi and today took out #3 seed Mandy Minella 6-2 6-0 to advance to tomorrow's Final. The initial game of the match featured rallies that lasted nearly 30 strokes as it appeared that the match would be quite lengthy. However, Minella requested to see the trainer on the next changeover in the 2nd game of the opening set. Down 0-3, Minella departed the court and reappeared with her left thigh bandaged and seemed to continue to be impacted by the apparent injury.
Larcher De Brito managed to play solid tennis throughout the match, showing no mercy to her wounded opponent and consistently kept the ball in play. The victory was the 9th in the last 10 matches for Larcher De Brito and she will attempt to win her 3rd ITF title of the year tomorrow.
Sessil Karatantcheva stymies American upstart Madison Keys in Saturday's 2nd Semifinal. Pete Ziebron Images
The 2nd semifinal featured veteran and former Roland Garros quarterfinalist Sessil Karatantcheva and 16 year-old Madison Keys. The young American served big and unloaded huge forehands early on, taking the first set 6-1. However, Keys was breathing heavily behind the baseline early in the match, causing Karatantcheva to have to wait before she was able to serve to Keys. Even though Keys won the opening set fairly easily, one could get the sense that she would need to win the match in 2 sets due to all of the energy that she expended in the first set.
Despite dropping the opening set, Karatantcheva used years of experience on tour to finally solve Keys in the second set. Karatantcheva would proceed to move Keys all over the court during the 2nd set as she hit several beautiful lobs, causing Keys to have to track difficult overheads and scramble back into position. No matter how hard Keys would hit her serves and forehands, they all seemed to come back at her and as the match continued, Keys would lose pace on her shots and continued to breathe harder.
The players traded breaks at key times late in the 2nd set and fittingly, the set went to a tiebreaker. Keys jumped to a 3-1 advantage and she thought she hit a deep forehand for a winner however the chair overruled and correctly called the ball out. Karatantcheva would win the next 4 points to take a 6-3 lead and would win eventually win the breaker 7-4 to take the match to a deciding set.
Katatantcheva's solid backhands would continue to wear down Keys in the 3rd set. Although the players again would trade breaks midway through the set, Karatantcheva was the steadier player throughout, won the final set 6-3 and was rewarded with a place in the Final against Michelle Larcher De Brito.
Sunday's Singles Final will be preceded by the Doubles Championship, featuring the unique duo of UCLA graduate Yasmin Schnack and USC alum Maria Sanchez against the #4 seeds, American Jamie Hampton and Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia. Action gets underway at 12 noon at the Phoenix Country Club.
Goldwater Semifinalist Mandy Minella of Luxembourg Pete Ziebron Images
Goldwater Semifinalist American Madison Keys Pete Ziebron Images
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