By TERRY MADDAFORD
Top seeds Paola Suarez and Virginia Ruano Pascual are on course for yet another WTA doubles title.
The world's top pairing made short work of Eleni Daniilidou and Rita Grande in last night's second semifinal at the ASB Classic.
They will meet Mervana Jugic-Salkic (Bosnia/Herzegovina) and her Croatian partner Jelena Kostanic in today's final.
The 6-2, 6-0 win in just 39 minutes was some compensation for Suarez, who not much earlier had gone down to Daniilidou in their singles semifinal, thus losing any chance of a rare singles-doubles double.
Daniilidou was obviously feeling the effects of playing her fifth game in two days.
For Argentine Suarez and her Spanish partner the doubles final - which will follow the Daniilidou-Ashley Harkleroad singles final - will be the chance of a 22nd title together.
The unseeded Jugic-Salkic/Kostanic combination continued their run - which included a quarter-final win over Marion Bartoli and Laura Granville - with a straight-sets semifinal win over the Argentine/Italian combination of Gisela Dulko and Tathinana Garbin, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5.
The first set was a drawn-out 49-minute struggle before Jugic-Salkic/Kostanic won in a tiebreaker in the best conditions of the day.
It was one of those predictable sets in which all players held serve to 6-6. Even the tiebreaker went to 6-6 before the two precious points were claimed.
The second set was almost more of the same, reaching 5-5 - with a break of serve each way and a match point for Jugic-Salkic and Kostinic - before Kostanic held for 6-5 and then combined with Jugic-Salkic to break Dulko and win through.
The win gives Kostanic the chance of a fifth WTA doubles title, and a first with Jugic-Salkic. who has won once, at Casablanca last year.
In contrast, the second semifinal was over in a blink.
Suarez was broken in the first game - a mere hiccup as the top seeds mounted their charge.
They dropped only one more game in closing out the first set and even more quickly raced through the second to ensure they will see some action today.
Tennis: Top pair eye their 22nd title
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.