Dream Final in Thailand

Thai tennis icon Tamarine Tanasugarn will face No.1 seed Vera Zvonareva for the title.

Published Feburary 13, 2010 12:00

Dream Final in Thailand
Tamarine Tanasugarn

PATTAYA CITY, Thailand - Perhaps buoyed by some of the recent comebacks in the women's game, 32-year-old Tamarine Tanasugarn continued to prove age ain't nothing but a number Saturday, routing Sesil Karatantcheva to reach her the 10th career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final.

Tanasugarn needed just an hour and 15 minutes to beat Karatantcheva, a first-time semifinalist on the Tour, 62 60. The two unseeded players had each taken out seeds en route to the semis - Tanasugarn, No.2 seed Sabine Lisicki and Karatantcheva, No.8 seed Julia Goerges - but the Thai veteran was the sharpest, breaking her opponent five times and never giving up her own delivery.

Vera Zvonareva will try to stop Tanasugarn from winning her first title on home soil. The top seed rallied to a 62 46 63 victory over fourth seed Yaroslava Shvedova, losing serve just one time - in that second set - but managing to wrestle control of the other sets to reach her second straight final here. Having gone 5-0 to win last year, Zvonareva is now on a nine-match streak in Pattaya.

Check out off-court photos from Pattaya in this week's photo gallery!

Surprisingly, given how successful the two have been on the Tour over the last decade, Zvonareva and Tanasugarn have only played once before, with the Thai leading the head-to-head, 1-0. Check out the pair's head-to-head here.

Zvonareva is playing in her 21st career final, going 9-11 in her first 20; as already mentioned, Tanasugarn is playing in the 10th final of her career, going 3-6.

The doubles final will follow the singles final and Tanasugarn could give herself the double crown, partnering Marina Erakovic and taking on Russians Anna Chakvetadze and Ksenia Pervak. It would be Tanasugarn's first sweep.

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