By Bob Phillips
Photos by Bill Harper
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| Daria Gavrilova of Australia upset Agnieszka Radwanska, the defending champion, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the Connecticut Open on Saturday. |
Radwanska quickly
fell behind two breaks in the first game of the match. That was a hole
extremely hard to dig out of—even for one of the top players in the world—and she
did not.
Gavrilova, a 23-year-old Australian by way of Russia—Moscow,
to be precise—played a masterful match to reach her second WTA final this year,
the first being Strasbourg where she was defeated by fellow Australian Samantha
Stosur. Gavrilova, currently ranked No. 26 in the world, is the first Aussie to
reach the finals at the Connecticut Open. While she will no doubt be “moving on
up” when the next rankings come out, Gavrilova has another huge challenge
tomorrow: a date with Slovak Dominika Cibulkova, the tournament’s second seed
who topped Elise Mertins of Belgium, 6-1, 6-3 in the first semifinal.
At first glance, the final should be a classic mismatch: The
No. 2 seed, ranked No. 11 in the world vs. unseeded Gavrilova. Cibulkova has
won eight WTA titles in her career. Gavrilova is seeking her first. Cibulkova
has $11.6 million in career earnings; Gavrilova has $2.3 million. This year
Cibulkova has won $682,188 for Cibulkova compared to $574,016 for Gavrilova.
But pay no notice to silly statistics. Gavrilova is determined to
give Cibulkova a run for the money.
“I’m going to come out fighting tomorrow,” Gavrilova
said. “Every match, every tournament is a new opportunity. You don't know
what's going to happen on the day. I think having played the final, two finals,
gives me a bit of experience. I've experienced it before. But it's going to be
a different match tomorrow,
different emotions, yeah, another great opportunity.”
2017 Connecticut Open
Attendance Update: Friday Sessions
Day Session: 4,106
Evening Session: 3,828
Daily total: 7,934
2017 Total Attendance: 45,688
Final Preview: http://bit.ly/2iwOezC
FRIDAY’S RESULTS
Women's Singles -
Semifinals
D. Gavrilova (AUS) d [1] A. Radwanska (POL) 64 64
[2] D. Cibulkova (SVK) d [Q] E. Mertens (BEL) 61 63
Women's Doubles -
Semifinals
[2] A. Barty (AUS) / C. Dellacqua (AUS) d E. Mertens (BEL) /
K. Pliskova (CZE) 62 61
[4] G. Dabrowski (CAN) / Y. Xu (CHN) d [Alt] N. Melichar
(USA) / A. Smith (GBR) 75 63
ORDER OF PLAY – SAT., AUG. 26
STADIUM starts at 12:30 p.m.
Doubles Final: [4] G. Dabrowski (CAN) / Y. Xu (CHN) vs [2]
A. Barty (AUS) / C. Dellacqua (AUS)
Not Before 3 p.m.
Singles Final: D. Gavrilova (AUS) vs [2] D. Cibulkova (SVK)
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