Monica Seles outclassed Anna Kournikova in the semi-finals today to set up a re-match between former world number ones against Martina Hingis at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament.
The American third seed, who lost to Hingis in three sets in the Australian Open semi-finals a week ago, pulled off a tough 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over the Russian in one hour, 21 minutes.
Top seed Hingis, the winner here in 1997, 1999 and 2000, needed just one hour to beat Silvia Farina Elia of Italy 6-0, 6-4 to earn a final berth for a sixth year running.
Only one service break, both in the second game, decided the winner of the first two sets as Seles and Kournikova went into the final set, and the Russian got ahead 2-0 up in the decider.But Seles fought back to even at 2-2 and staved off one break point at 30-40 in the seventh game to keep it for 4-3.
Seles hit her strokes in full swing to force Kournikova to make an error four times consecutively from 0-15 to score a crucial break again in the eighth game, which eventually decided the winner.
"On this (fast) surface, you just have to go for it and that's what I tried to do and my opponent tried to do today. And today, I just won more important points," said Seles after her fifth win over Kournikova in six matches.
AFP