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Australian Samantha Stosur extended her unbeaten run to eight matches as she shrugged off former world number one Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-4 at the Kremlin Cup, and is due to play her doubles partner Svetlana Kuznetsova for a spot in the final.
The quarter-final tie between former grand slam champions was a perfect platform for the Aussie veteran to exact revenge over Ivanovic, to whom she had capitulated in last year’s semi-final. After the match, Stosur said she had the previous year’s loss in mind before she stepped on the court.
An in-form Stsour, who came into the tournament after winning her fifth career title at Osaka, said after the match: “I certainly had a few things in my head that I wanted to try to do today against her. And right from the start it was kind of working and from that my confidence kind of built, and I was able to keep going and play well till the end.”
Kuznetsova wins
Playing in front of her home crowd, the veteran Russian took little time to dispatch the second-seed Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-3 to book her maiden semi-final spot of the season.
This will be the 28-year-old Russian’s first foray into the semi-final since 2007 when she was stopped in her tracks by Serena Williams.
