Olaru, Petkovic reach 1st career WTA final with victories at Bad Gastein

Olaru, Petkovic advance to Gastein Ladies final

BAD GASTEIN, Austria — Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania and Andrea Petkovic of Germany both reached their first career WTA Tour final Saturday at the Nuernberger Gastein Ladies.

Olaru upset top-seeded Alize Cornet of France 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, and Petkovic routed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-1.

The 66th-ranked Olaru is 2-1 against the 98th-ranked Petkovic. The German won their last hardcourt match, in Indian Wells in March, but Olaru’s victories both came on clay, the same surface as at Bad Gastein.

After conceding the opening set, Olaru fell a break behind in the second before the match was interrupted for an hour because of rain.

Cornet double-faulted twice and did not a score a point while serving for the match at 5-4, and was broken again at 5-6.

An early break in the decider was enough for Olaru, who wrapped up the victory when Cornet hit a forehand return long.

The 21-year-old Petkovic has won eight titles on the lower ranked ITF circuit but had never reached a WTA quarterfinal before Bad Gastein.

“I know I am good enough to beat most players on this level,” said Petkovic, who is 5-1 against No. 57 Shvedova. “I expected tough three-set match, but I didn’t give her much of a chance after a shaky start.”

Both players struggled early with unforced errors and double-faults on the rain-soaked clay courts.

After splitting the opening four games, Petkovic won nine in a row and converted her first match point when Shvedova netted a forehand.