Tennis: Never say die sees Tu through

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Some sanity finally returned to the Auckland international women's tennis tournament with sixth seed Paola Suarez and Meilen Tu - the best of the rest - winning through to this afternoon's final.

After the giantkilling runs by unseeded players throughout the week-long ASB Bank Classic, Tu saw off Italian Francesca Schiavone in a testing 2h 5m two-setter 7-6 (8-6) 7-5, while Suarez wasted little time in beating Marlene Weingartner 7-5, 6-1 in the second semifinal.

The first semifinal was at times a dogfight.

Tu broke Schiavone in the opening game but the Italian quickly returned the compliment to level at 2-2.

They traded serves to 5-5 before Tu served her first double fault en route to dropping her serve and trail 5-6 but she quickly broke Schiavone to send it to a tiebreaker.

Schiavone won four from four in coming to the net although the set decider was riddled with errors from both sides of the net.

Tu quickly fell 2-5 behind in the tiebreaker but a code violation handed to Schiavone by New Zealand umpire Blaze Trifunovski for an "audible obscenity" - in Italian - brought a lapse in concentration and saw Tu level at 6-6 and go on to take the tiebreaker 8-6 and the set.

Tu broke for 2-1 early in the second but lost that advantage in the next game, a drawn out affair.

Schiavone had to struggle for 4-3 with Tu, ahead 40-15, failing to convert four break points. At 5-4 Schiavone had two set points but Tu fought back for 5-5, broke the Italian - who served two double faults - in the next and then served it out to love to win through to her first final on the Sanex WTA tour.

"I came here just wanting to win one match after being beaten in the first round the other three times I have been here," said Tu, just 11 days short of her 23rd birthday.

"I'm really happy."

So was Suarez who had played the late matches (singles and doubles) on Thursday and went into yesterday's second semifinal a bit short on sleep.

"In the beginning I was a little bit tired and a little nervous," said 24-year-old Suarez after needing just 1h 18m to end Weingartner's hopes.

"But I feel so good at the finish."

Those nerves obviously played a part in her first service game as she failed to win a point in falling 0-2 behind.

But as her strong backhand game took over, the Argentine No 1 raced to 3-2 and eventually took the set 7-5 after breaking the 20-year-old German in the crucial 11th game.

The second set was a mere formality for the South American who lost the first game but won the next six in a little over 15 minutes.

"Yesterday [Thursday] my forehand was stronger, today it was my backhand," said Suarez. "Being seeded here does not matter.

"The field is so even."

Yesterday's victory wiped out the memory of her first visit when she lost to eventual champion Anne Kremer in last year's quarter-finals.

Tu and Suarez have never met in a tour event.

The doubles final will also be a battle between a seeded and unseeded pair.

Alexandra Fusai (France) and her Italian partner Rita Grande - the third seeds - will play unseeded Swiss Emmanuelle Galardi and Barbara Schett (Austria) after they ousted top seeds Sandrine Testud (France) and Cara Black (Zimbabwe) 6-2, 6-3 in yesterday's second semifinal.

For Fusai it is the chance to defend the title she won with Black last year.

Today's schedule:

From 1 pm: Singles final, Tu v Suarez followed by doubles final Gagliardi/Schett v Fusai/Grande.