Top seed Jana Novotna set up a repeat of last year's final with a devastating display in the Direct Line Insurance Championships at Eastbourne yesterday. The 29-year-old twice Wimbledon runner-up shrugged off the effects of a tough quarter-final yesterday morning to produce some of her best tennis this season.
Novotna defeated fifth seed Irina Spirlea 6-4 7-5 before lunch and then returned to thrash Natasha Zvereva 6-2 6-1 in just over an hour in glorious sunshine on centre court.
She now faces French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in today's final, a repeat of 1997's meeting when the trophy had to be shared as bad weather prevented the final from being completed.
Sanchez Vicario had earlier produced a typically gutsy performance to battle past Serena Williams in three sets in their rain-delayed quarter-final.
Within a few minutes of completing her victory, Sanchez Vicario discovered she had been given a walkover into the final when another teenager, Russian Anna Kournikova, withdrew from the event with a sprained joint in her right thumb.
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