Thai Tamarine reaches Pattaya Open final

Pattaya: Home favourite Tamarine Tanasugarn overpowered Kazakh Sesil Karatantcheva 6-2, 6-0 on Saturday to reach the final of the USD 220,000 Pattaya Open.

Tamarine played solidly throughout, winning game after game with powerful forehands that forced woeful returns from Karatantcheva.The American-born Thai will face either top seed and defending champion Vera Zvonareva of Russia or Kazakhstan`s Yaroslava Shvedova in Sunday`s final, the 10th of her 16-year professional career. With the home crowd behind her in the scorching heat, Tamarine, who at 32 is one of the oldest players on the tour, broke the 20-year-old Kazakh twice to open up a 4-0 lead in the first set. Karatantcheva put up a lot of resistance in the one hour, 20-minute match but struggled with her serves and paid the price for repeatedly squandering her chances to break her opponent. "The match wasn`t as easy as it seemed from the score, especially being held six or seven times at deuce on second set. I just tried to take each game at a time," Tamarine told reporters."I`m very satisfied and happy to get it over with quickly. Tomorrow, I have nothing to lose." Bureau Report