ISTANBUL, Turkey, July 31 (UPI) -- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Elena Vesnina will meet for an all-Russian Istanbul Cup final after both posted semifinal wins Saturday.
Pavlyuchenkova, the No. 3 seed, collected a 7-6 (7-1), 2-6, 7-5 triumph over Jarmila Groth of Australia. Vesnina, meanwhile, came back for a 1-6, 6-0, 7-6 (7-2) decision over No. 6 seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany.
Vesnina's match was by far the most contentious of the two semifinals. She fell easily in the first set, but then regrouped and won 25 of the 32 points played in the second set.
After Vesnina and Petkovic each broke three times in a back-and-forth third set, the Russian dominated the tiebreak and went on to finish the match.
Vesnina and Pavlyuchenkova will face each other for the second time. Pavlyuchenkova won their first encounter two years ago in Bratislava.
