France's Tatiana Golovin moved a step closer to her first WTA Tour singles title, beating Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in cold and windy conditions Saturday in the Bausch & Lomb semifinals.
The eighth-seeded Golovin, 0-3 in WTA Tour finals, will face top-seeded Nadia Petrova, a 7-6 (4), 6-1 winner over Sybille Bammer.
"The conditions were very, very tough to handle. It was windy and it was really cold out there," Golovin said. "I was proud of myself because I was able to keep at it. We both could have played better."
It was the French teen's first win over the sixth-seeded Ivanovic in six tries, but the outcome could have easily been a sixth consecutive loss.
The two 19-year-old players battled on serve into the 10th game of the first set, when at 30-30, Ivanovic made a pair of unforced errors to hand Golovin the first set.
Ivanovic won the second set to even the match, and had numerous chances to gain the upper hand in the third set.
She had at least one breakpoint opportunity in each of Golovin's first four service games in the third set, including eight chances in the first three games. But she was only able to convert on the eighth chance, to shave Golovin's lead to 4-2.
"I had chances in all of those games, but she served very well today and played some very good points in some deciding moments which obviously was a key today," Ivanovic said.
Even when she held a 5-2 lead in the third set, Golovin said she didn't feel secure.
