Sania-Strycova in Wuhan Open final

Wuhan, September 30 

Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova moved into the final of the Wuhan Open here today. The third seeds beat the second-seeded Chinese Taipei team of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan 6-4 3-6 10-7 in the semifinals of the $2,589,000 tournament.

Mirza and Strycova had entered the semifinals after a straight-set win over Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova. They defeated the sixth seeds 6-3 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals.

Kvitova upsets Halep to reach final

Czech Petra Kvitova romped to a 6-1 6-2 victory over world No. 5 Simona Halep in the semifinals to move a step closer to winning the tournament for the second time.

In-form Kvitova, who won the title in 2014, will meet Dominika Cibulkova in the final on Saturday after the Slovak beat Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Despite making 16 unforced errors, 14th seed Kvitova, who knocked out German world No. 1 Angelique Kerber in the last 16, hit 34 winners to crush Romanian fourth seed Halep in just over an hour. “I came to this tournament and really didn’t expect this kind of performance,” Kvitova said. “Physically I’m still so-so — I’m really happy that I’m not falling apart.” 

Cibulkova’s path to the final has been far less straightforward as the 10th seed played two matches on Thursday. “It feels great. I’m really tired right now, but the feeling to be in the final is unbelievable,” Cibulkova said. — PTI, Reuters