Viktorija Golubic has reached her first WTA final after ending the run of 16-year-old Rebeka Masarova in the semifinals of the rain-interrupted Ladies Championships Gstaad.
The world No.105 required just 67-minutes to dismiss Masarova 6-3, 6-2. Golubic dominated her inexperienced opponent throughout their encounter, breaking Masarova’s serve five times. On route to the final, the 23-year-old has only dropped one set in the entire tournament.
“I feel great! It was great to play in an all-Swiss semifinal – and for the popularity of tennis in Switzerland it was also very helpful,” Golubic told wtatennis.com.
“I enjoyed today, I won two matches and feel amazing. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Golubic’s semifinal triumph has done little to disturb the hype surrounding Masarova, who was playing in the first WTA tournament of her career. The French Open Girls champion have produced surprise wins over Jelena Jankovic, Anett Kontaveit and Annika beck earlier in the competition.
In the final, Golubic will play French Open semifinalist Kiki Bertens. The Dutch world No. 26 recovered from a 2-5 deficit during the opening set to upset top seed Timea Bacsinsky 7-5, 7-6(1), in her semifinal match. Bertens encountered problems with her service throughout the 111-minute clash, producing eight unforced errors and managing to get just 49% of her first serves in.
“I feel really good after a tough week with all the rain,” said Bertens. “I’ve played a lot of matches in a short time.”
“But I feel good, I’m just going to go for it in the final. I have a great feeling about my game.”
Saturday was a long day for both Golubic and Bertens, who also had to play their quarter-final matches earlier in the day due to poor weather conditions on Friday.
Going into the final, Golubic currently has a losing head-to-head record of 0-2 against Bertens this year, suffering losses in Monterrey and Acapulco. On the other hand, there are injury concerns surrounding Bertens. Shortly after her triumph over Bacsinszky, she withdrew from the doubles tournament to receive extra treatement on a calf injury.
