Anastasija Sevastova eased past Samantha Stosur 7-6, 6-2 in Mallorca on Saturday, marking her third straight final at the tournament and leaving her one match away from defending her title.
She will face unseeded 30-year-old German Tatjana Maria, who knocked off American qualifier Sofia Kenin in a topsy-turvy three sets. Both players were seeking their first tour-level final.
The Latvian, then, will enter Sunday as the heavy favorite. She looked comfortable in that role in the semifinal, never trailing and demolishing her Australian opponent in the first set tiebreak and then the second set.
The two traded breaks on a pair of occasions in the first set, games marked by regular Stosur errors and mishits from Sevastova. Stosur’s errant form continued in the tiebreak, where she routinely missed first serves and forehands, handing the Latvian an easy 6-0 lead. The 34-year-old, ranked 98th in the world, did not win a point on her serve in the 7-1 beatdown.
Sevastova, the No. 3 seed, harnessed that edge. Errors from Stosur gave Sevastova a 0-40 advantage at 0-1 in the second set, then a crisp Sevastova forehand down the line gave her the earliest of break opportunities.
Stosur briefly regained her form, holding serve and pushing to a 0-30 lead on a Sevastova service game, but she faded again in the final games. Stosur tallied 28 unforced errors to 14 winners and won only 52 percent of points on her serve.
As Sevastova reaches her third Mallorca final in its third year of existence, Maria rides an out-of-nowhere run of form that follows a poor year on tour: She arrived in Spain just 2-13 in tour events, with both wins on clay.
But she looked the veteran she is in the third set. After a pair of straightforward frames in which one player gained an early edge and then extended it, Maria broke early in the third after Kenin knocked a slice volley into the bottom of the net. The 19-year-old American responded two games later with a winner at the net, setting off a whirlwind final four games in which neither player could hold serve.
Serving for the match at 5-3, Maria sprayed groundstrokes wide to put the match back on serve. Then, a visible irate Maria called for her coach while Kenin asked for a trainer; she received lengthy treatment on her left thigh. Whether compromised by that injury or nerves, Kenin faded in her final service game, and Maria converted her first match point with a tricky overhead volley to reach a milestone final.
