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Monday October 19, 2009

Upsets galore as Wickmayer and Kvitova reach Linz final

LINZ: Top seed Flavia Pennetta and second seed Agnieszka Radwanska were beaten in the semi-finals of the WTA event here on Saturday.

Third seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium defeated Italian Pennetta 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, and unseeded Czech Petra Kvitova upset Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-3, 6-2.

Pennetta’s defeat means that she is eliminated from the race for the last remaining place available at the WTA Championships in Doha, although her chance of qualifying was slim as she needed to win both Linz and next week’s event in Moscow to have any hope of competing in the season-ending finale.

Although Pennetta might still travel to Qatar as an alternate to replace any player that is sick or injured, the remaining place to be decided in Moscow is between Jelena Jankovic, Vera Zvonareva and Radwanska.

Pennetta had an opportunity to claim the first set, breaking twice from 0-3 down to lead 5-4, but she allowed Wickmayer to level at 5-5 and take the tie-break.

There was drama on the final point as, with Wickmayer leading 6-5, a Pennetta return was called out but over-ruled by the umpire, but Pennetta made an error when the point was replayed.

Wickmayer then converted the first break point of the second set at 3-3 when Pennetta hit her sixth double-fault and, after surviving a break point in the next game when the Italian made a poor return, Wickmayer broke again for the match with a winning pass. — AFP

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