Marion Bartoli and Dominika Cibulkova in the finals at Carlsbad

By Lisa-Marie Burrows

CARLSBAD WTA

In the U.S. tournament on the hard courts of Carlsbad, top seed Marion Bartoli, defeated the qualifier Jung Chan Yan and landed a place in the final. For the experienced player from France it was anything but a walk in the park, despite her significantly higher ranking, the match eventually ended with a three set score line of 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The magic started tragically for the top ten player, who quickly went down a double-break, 0-5, before winning one game to put her name on the scoreboard.

In the next set, after an initial exchange of breaks, it was Bartoli who ruled the match by taking the next two sets 6-3, 6-3.  Bartoli was swinging more freely in the third set, which saw three breaks in the first three games before sealing the match with another break in the ninth game.

In the final Marion Bartoli will face Dominika Cibulkova, seeded number two, who won 7-6, 6-1 against Nadia Petrova.

WTA Bastad

The Swedish tournament on clay will feature a final between Polona Hercog and Mathilde Johansson. The first set was clearly dominated by Hercog who upset the German Mona Barthel with a 6-1, 6-3 victory, whilst the second matched featured the home crowd favorite player, Johanna Larsson. The Swede delighted the crowd with a two sets victory, 6-4, 6-4.