HOBART, Australia - Unseeded Iveta Benesova and Petra Kvitova are to do battle for the Moorilla Hobart International title, after both scored resounding wins over their semifinal opponents on Thursday. It will be the first all-Czech final in nearly four years, between two players who share not only a homeland but also a coach - which could make things interesting if either desires counsel during the match. Yet they have never before faced each other on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.
World No.41 Benesova, at 25 the elder of the two left-handed Fed Cup teammates, was first to advance with a comprehensive 61 63 win over steadily-rising Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova, ranked No.57. Later, in the evening session, No.49 Kvitova, 18, put on a mature display to dispatch resourceful Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 64 61, with one service break in the first set and two in the second.
Benesova, who was playing her fourth semifinal in Tasmania today, was a finalist in 2006, losing to Michaella Krajicek; Friday's championship match will be the sixth final of her career.
"I remember my last final here, it wasn't very nice, I think I won like three points so I'm hoping things will be better tomorrow," said Benesova, whose sole title was collected at Acapulco in 2004. She added that she would not call on coach David Kotyza in the final if her opponent was Kvitova.
Kvitova's match against Razzano was her first Tour singles semifinal, following on from quarterfinal finishes at Budapest and Zürich in 2008. Last year, as a qualifier ranked 143 she also scored a famous win over Venus Williams at Memphis - the worst defeat rankings-wise of the American's career - and went on to improve her ranking by more than 100 places during the season. Following Nicole Vaidisova's drop outside the Top 50, Kvitova now finds herself the Czech No.2, to Benesova's No.1.
Benesova also went within a few points of reaching the doubles final, but she and compatriot Barbora Zahlavova Strycova were edged by Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in a match tie-break. The Argentine-Italian duo play top seeds Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko in the final, after the reigning Australian Open champions beat Edina Gallovits and Arantxa Parra Santonja in straight sets in the other semi.
The last time two Czech players contested a Tour singles final was in June 2005, when Klara Koukalova (now Zakopalova) defeated Lucie Safarova to win the Ordina Open in the Netherlands. The drought before that was even longer, stretching back to 1994, but of course Czech finals were relatively routine during the years of Navratilova, Mandlikova, Sukova and Novotna.
