Mattek-Sands, Pliskova make WTA final

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, March 2 (UPI) -- Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Karolina Pliskova each posted upsets Saturday in reaching the finals at the WTA's BMW Malaysian Open tennis tournament.

Mattek-Sands, ranked No. 197 in the world, defeated third-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-1 after Pliskova, the world's No. 127 player, rolled over fourth-seeded Ayumi Morita 6-0, 6-2.

That gave Pliskova her first berth in a WTA championship match. Mattek-Sands will be making her fourth finals appearance but she is yet to win a tournament. Mattek-Sands won her only previous meeting with Pliskova.

Pliskova was on the court just 47 minutes in beating Morita. She lost only five points in seven games serving. Pliskova also took 59 percent of the points off Morita's serve, giving her 70 percent of the points in the match.

Mattek-Sands finished with five breaks against Pavlyuchenkova. Despite losing her serve once, Mattek-Sands won 72 percent of the points on serve.

The winner of the Malaysian Open final will collect $40,000 with the runner-up taking $20,000. Morita and Pavlyuchenkova each claimed $10,725 as semifinalists.