Daniela Hantuchova goes for a second straight Pattaya Open title when she takes on Maria Kirilenko in Sunday's final.
Hantuchova has looked every inch a defending champion this week, reaching the final without dropping a set. She easily disposed of surprise semi-finalist Hsieh Su-Wei 6-4, 6-1, conceding an early break but then winning thirteen of the next fifteen games to cruise through.
As ever Kirilenko had an almighty battle to book her place in the final, seeing off Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in two hours and twenty eight minutes.
Kirilenko took advantage of the Romanian's erratic play to ease through the first set but the second featured plenty of fierce rallies with Cirstea taking the game to her opponent. Kirilenko camed from 4-2 down to serve for the match at 5-4 before Cirstea hit back. However the Russian stayed strong to eventually clinch things in the decider on her third match point.
"We both played very good tennis," Kirilenko said. "I think I was very aggressive today and was happy with my serve, my return, and my backhand finally because in other matches I didn't play good from the backhand. I'm happy with my volleys. Everything was working."
Hantuchova leads 4-2 on the head-to-head although Kirilenko won 7-5, 6-2 when they last met in Zurich four years ago.
