No. 6 seed Petra Martic of Croatia rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 upset over top-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece in the Upper Austria Ladies Linz semifinals on Saturday in Linz, Austria.
Martic struck eight aces, saved seven of 10 break points and broke Sakkari’s serve three times during a momentum-shifting middle set.
Martic’s opponent in Sunday’s final at the WTA 250 tournament is No. 8 Anastasia Potapova of Russia, who held off Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3.
Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open
No. 2 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland breezed to a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of No. 6 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil in a 93-minute semifinal match in the United Arab Emirates.
Bencic saved the only break point she faced and advanced to her second final of the season, having collected her seventh career singles title at last month’s Adelaide International 2.
Across the net in Sunday’s final at the WTA 500 event will be No. 8 seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 winner against Qinwen Zheng of China. Samsonova withstood 15 aces and fired 10 of her own in the two-hour, 19-minute semifinal.
–Field Level Media
