Tennis: Wildcards' run to the semifinals

Leanne Baker turns 24 today and she woke up contemplating the prospect of her first WTA doubles title.

Te Awamutu lefthander Baker and her Italian partner, Francesca Lubiani, made full use of their wildcard into the main ASB Classic doubles draw by reaching the semifinals yesterday with a thrilling 7-5, 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-3) win over Americans Laura Granville and Teryn Ashley.

Then they were handed a stroke of good fortune when Slovakia's Janette Husarova picked up a stomach problem and had to pull out in the opening set of her singles quarter-final against fourth seed Shinobu Asagoe.

Husarova and her Russian partner Lina Krasnoroutskaya were due to play Baker and Lubiani. But the walkover puts the wildcards straight into the final, scheduled for today if it can be played outdoors.

If the weather stays bad, the alternatives are outdoors tomorrow or indoors at North Harbour Tennis Park tomorrow.

In the final they will play top seeds Asagoe and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.

Baker, whose world doubles ranking is 131, almost 400 spots higher than her singles mark, confirmed the pairs game is where her future lies.

"I'm going to base my schedule round doubles," she said.

"I tend to read doubles a lot better than singles and it's nice to have someone else on court."

Baker played a fine game yesterday in the covered dome at the ASB Tennis Centre, holding her serve throughout.

They could have won in straight sets. However lefthander Lubiani, 168 in doubles rankings, could not hold her serve at 5-4.

Before an enthusiastic crowd of several hundred, with glasses clinking and rain belting down outside, they got to the tiebreak and ran away with it.

Baker made a doubles semifinal at Luxembourg last year and it seems certain that, win or lose, she and Lubiani will get into the field at the Australian Open later this month.