MOSCOW, October 18 (R-Sport) – World No. 19 Sam Stosur edged past fourth seed Ana Ivanovic and into the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup on Friday.
Last year's finalist Stosur was the marginally more aggressive player on the hard courts of the Olympiisky Sports Complex in Moscow, and dug out a 7-5, 6-4 win in one hour and 24 minutes.
"I certainly had a few things in my head that I wanted to try today against her and right from the start it was working and from that my confidence kind of built, and I was able to keep going and play well till the end," Stosur said.
Stosur recovered from 3-0 down in the first set to power back and take it 7-5. The 29-year-old maintained it to break the Serb's second service game and held her own serve to close out the set and the match.
The 25-year-old Ivanovic, ranked five places higher than Stosur, passed up the chance for revenge for last year's semifinal defeat to the Australian and suffered defeat to the ex-US Open champion for the third successive time.
Stosur goes on to face her doubles partner Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals.
"Sometimes it's harder to play against people that you know a little bit better," Stosur said. "We've already played twice this year and I've played well against her, but if I play her tomorrow here in Moscow it's going to be a different situation."
Both Stosur and Ivanovic have already qualified for the WTA tournament of champions that will be staged in Sofia late October, as Stosur won events in Osaka and Carlsbad, while 2010 and 2011 champion Ivanovic received a wild card.
"It was a very close match, I started really well, but then she played really strong and I didn't feel I had many chances," Ivanovic said. "Now I will have a few days off in Belgrade and then prepare before going to Sofia."
The Kremlin Cup is a hard-court ATP 250 and WTA Premier tournament with a prize fund of $795,000 for the women's competition.
Updates with quotes, corrects lede
