In-form Stosur in sight of second successive title

In-form Stosur in sight of second successive title

Australia's Samantha Stosur moved to within one win of a second successive WTA title on Saturday when she beat Russia's two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-2, 6-4 in their Kremlin Cup semi-final.

Australia's Samantha Stosur returns the ball to Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova during their Kremlin Cup tennis tournament semi-final match in Moscow on October 19, 2013

The 29-year-old Australian, who won the Osaka title last Sunday, will meet fifth seed Simona Halep of Romania, who saw off Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-1.

Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, took 92 minutes to defeat 29-year-old Kuznetsova and move ahead in their head-to-head record, 4-3.

Stosur, ranked 19th in the world, was clinical in the first set breaking four times to take it in 38 minutes as Kuznetsova was able to only break back twice.

In the second set, Stosur broke the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open champion twice again for a 5-1 lead.

Kuznetsova showed character in breaking Stosur's serve twice to get back into the set, only to undo all her good work by being broken once again in the 10th game which handed the Australian the match.

"At the start we were both struggling to hold serve and she had love-40 again on me and my second service again and I was able to get out of that," Stosur said.

"And I think that gave me a little bit of a confidence boost and to win that first set 6-2 was good.

"It was still pretty tight all the way through with who was going to hold. We know each other's games pretty well. So I guess you've got to take your opportunities when you get them."

Halep, 22, who has four WTA titles this year, broke twice at the start of her match to take a commanding 4-0 lead and eased through the first set in 33 minutes.

The second set was almost a carbon copy of the first as Halep, currently 18th in the world, broke twice again for 4-0 before taking the set and the match in one hour 14 minutes.

In the ATP event, top-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet reached the final with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Croatia's Ivo Karlovic.

In Sunday's final Gasquet will face Kazakhstan qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin, who dethroned last year's champion and second seed Italian Andreas Seppi, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 win to reach his first final since 2010 in Saint Petersburg.

Gasquet, 10th in the world, who is on course for one of four remaining spots in the ATP World Tour Finals, clinched a one-set lead in 32 minutes after breaking Karlovic's serve in the ninth game.

In the 11th game of the second set, Gasquet made the deciding break before claiming the match in one hour 10 minutes.

"When you're playing with a hard server like Karlovic you need to be very careful with your break point chances," Gasquet said. "Today I had two break points and managed to convert both."

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