Gippsland Trophy: In her first WTA final since '13, Kaia Kanepi to face Elise Mertens

Seventh-seeded Elise Mertens, and Kaia Kanepi will contest the final of the Gippsland Trophy in Melbourne on Sunday.

The Belgian was the first to advance to the final of the WTA 500 event after her semi-final opponent, the second-seeded Naomi Osaka withdrew before the match with a “niggling injury”. In her statement, announcing her decision to withdraw, Osaka said, “Sorry to Tennis Australia and the fans to have to withdraw today. I have a niggling injury and in light of the AO [Australian Open] on the horizon, I need to be cautious. I look forward to competing next week.”

The 2019 Australian Open champion is seeded third for this year’s tournament. She has a tough opener against Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Meanwhile, Kanepi defeated ninth-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova in their semi-final. The Estonian won in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(6). This is the first final in almost eight years – since 2013 – for the 35-year-old Kanepi. That year, she reached the final of the Brussels Open in Belgium. She won the title – her fourth career title – there, beating Shuai Peng. Overall, this is the ninth WTA final of Kanepi’s career.

Speaking after her win, Kanepi said, “I didn’t expect to be in the final, I just expected to play good every match I play.”

Gippsland Trophy: Kaia Kanepi vs Elise Mertens

The Gippsland Trophy final will be the third meeting between Elise Mertens and Kaia Kanepi. The two have played each other twice before and have split their previous meetings. Kanepi won their first match at the Charleston Open in 2019 while Mertens prevailed in the 2020 French Open. While both players have caused upsets along the way in the event, with Mertens ousting Svitolina in the quarter-finals, Kanepi’s one-sided upset over Aryna Sabalenka – who had had won 15 matches successively – caused deeper ripples in the tournament.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2O8kJEx