21 March,2009 12:17 PM IST | | AFP
Defending champion Ana Ivanovic ended the dream run of Russian teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova yesterday to return to the final of the Indian Wells hardcourt tennis tournament.
Ivanovic, seeded fifth, beat the the unseeded 17-year-old 6-2, 6-3 to set up a meeting with fourth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva in tomorrow's final.
Zvonareva beat her doubles partner, eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, 6-3, 6-3.
Pavlyuchenkova had beaten World No 3 Jelena Jankovic and No 10 Agnieszka Radwanska en route to her first WTA Tour semi-final.
But she hit a wall against Ivanovic, the reigning French Open champion who held the World No 1 ranking for a total of 12 weeks in 2008.
Ivanovic has made a slow start to 2009, exiting in the third round of the Australian Open and not reaching a semi-final until this week.
She was delighted to find herself back in the championship match, and said growing confidence was the key to her resurgence.
"Obviously the victories I had this week helped me with my confidence," she said. "Coming into tournament I was very confident the way I was practising, but still wanted to prove that once I was actually on court competing.
"Because it's different kind of nerves once you're out there," she added. "I'm really happy, and I feel much more confident."
Down 2-5 in the second set, Pavlyuchenkova saved one match point against her own serve and held.
But she could make no inroads on Ivanovic's serve, and the Serbian closed her out with a love game.
"I was really happy with my performance," Ivanovic said. "She's not an easy opponent, she doesn't give you much rhythm.
"Going into the match, I didn't know anything about her. I haven't actually seen any of the matches she played. I just tried to do my game and be aggressive on her serve."
Zvonareva, who won her eighth career title at Pattaya City earlier this year, continued her dominance of Azarenka, who has never taken a set from the Russian in four meetings.
"I'm overall pretty happy with my game," Zvonareva said. "I had a few double faults, a few mistakes here and there, but I was going for my shots."
She broke Azarenka in the first game of the second set and again in the final game to seal the victory in one hour and 20 minutes.
Azarenka, a 19-year-old who captured the first two titles of her career this year in Brisbane and Memphis, upset top-seeded Russian Dinara Safina in the quarter-finals, rallying from a set down.
She had her chances against Zvonareva in both sets. She failed to convert two break points in the ninth game to extend the first set, and also had three break chances in the eighth game of the second.
"A wasted match," was the despondent Azarenka's assessment as she bemoaned her 37 unforced errors.
Despite the defeat, the 11th-ranked Azarenka is expected to break into the top 10 when the new WTA rankings are released on Monday.
She and Zvonareva were to be back on the same side of the net later today, contesting the women's doubles final.
