Sania Mirza

Florida: Sania Mirza and Chia-Jung Chuang extended their brilliant run by sailing into the final of the $220,000 MPS Group of Championships after a convincing straight set victory over Liga Dekmeijere and Angela Haynes.

The unseeded Indo-Taipei pair carved out a 6-4, 6-3 victory over the Latvian-American pair in the semi-final match in just one hour and eight minutes.

In the summit clash, Sania and Chuang will fight it out against top-seeded pair Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Lisa Raymond of US, who scored a 4-6, 7-5, 15-13 victory over Barbora Zahlavova Strycov and Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-final.

Sania and Chuang converted both breakpoints that came their way to race away with the first set apart from saving two on their own serve.

The second set saw a fierce fight as both the teams traded seven breaks but it was Sania-Chuang who managed to get the maximum out of those chances.

They dropped their serve thrice but broke their rivals four times to emerge winners.

In singles action, Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak upset top-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the semi-final on Saturday and will meet second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki.

Wozniacki beat unseeded Elena Vesnina of Russia in the other semi-final 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4). Danish teen Wozniacki beat Wozniak in their only previous clash at Wimbledon last year.

Wozniak, seeded fifth, won the first set and led 4-1 in the second before Petrova came back to win five straight games.

“She stepped it up in the second set,” Wozniak said. “I started backing up. Of course, my emotions got involved, but I found my composure in the third set. It feels good to beat the top seed and a top-10 player.”

Wozniak, who had 35 winners, built a 3-0 lead in the third set. She withstood the Russian’s rally with a variety of well-placed shots to every area of the court.

“She played really well,” Petrova said. “I’ve never seen anybody paint more lines than she did today.”

Petrova, who was coming back from a stress reaction injury to her right foot, said she's not disappointed with the loss.

“Two weeks ago they were talking about surgery so I am lucky to be able to play,” she said. “I know when I get my feet back I’ll play good tennis.”

Wozniak won her only title at Stanford last July, becoming the first Canadian in more than 20 years to win a singles title. (agencies)