 Makarova joined the senior women's circuit at the age of 15 |
Unseeded duo Ekaterina Makarova and Victoria Azarenka will contest the final of the Eastbourne International. Both the remaining seeds went out at Devonshire Park on Friday, third seed Samantha Stosur defeated 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 by qualifier Makarova, 22, of Russia. Marion Bartoli of France, seeded eight, lost 6-3 7-5 to Azarenka of Belarus. Fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beat Denis Istomin 3-6 6-3 6-4 and will play Michael Llodra in the men's final after he ousted Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3 7-5. It was a fine recovery by Russian Makarova, who won only four of the opening 19 points and trailed 0-3 and three break points. But French Open finalist Stosur was inconsistent, conceding her own serve to love after breaking to lead 5-3. Stosur survived two set points at 6-5 before Makarova took the tie-break with a winning forehand down the line. The left-hander from Russia from continued to apply the pressure in the second set, breaking to claim victory on her third match point. "Maybe I was a little bit nervous and I didn't play on the centre court here before," said Makarova. "I was just fighting every point and to serve good. I really liked my serve today, and my second serve was sometimes much better than my first." Despite the defeat Stosur will rise to a career-high of sixth in the new world rankings on Monday. Meanwhile, Bartoli has now failed to advance beyond the semi-finals for a fourth consecutive year. She was unable to combat the power of Azarenka, who earned a break for 2-1 and then forced a backhand error to break again for the set. Bartoli responded by breaking to lead 2-1 in the second, but Azarenka of Belarus broke back for 2-2 and hit a smash to break again for the match.
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