10 Jan 2009

All Elenas in classic final

12:26 pm on 10 January 2009

There'll be an all-Russian singles final at the ASB tennis Classic in Auckland after Elena Vesnina came from a set down to beat Britain's Anne Keothavong in the second semi-final.

Vesnina lost the first set in a tiebreak but took the second 6-1 then the decider 7-5.

She'll play the top seed Elena Dementieva in the final on Saturday afternoon after her 6-2 6-2 semi-final win over Aravane Rezai of France.

Dementieva says her victory might have looked easy but wasn't.

Despite some good, long rallies in which the more patient Russian world number four usually prevailed, a rash of unforced errors cost Rezai a chance of making the final for the second year running.

Dementieva wasn't surprised by those mistakes as she says Rezai was trying to go for the winner and that's why she missed shots sometimes.

The Russian says it's hard to stay with longer rallies when you're hitting so hard.

Rezai says her aggressive tennis just didn't pay off in the semi-final.