In the men's draw, Marin Cilic progressed to Sunday's final
with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Ivan Ljubicic. Cilic will face the winner of
Saturday's remaining semifinal between top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France
and third-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
Radwanska, the winner of last week's Pan Pacific Open in
Tokyo, beat Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-4, to improve her career record against the
Italian to 3-1.
"I knew she'd been playing well the last couple of
weeks so I was really focusing on my game from the beginning," Radwanska
said. "I was just happy to close this game in two sets." The Polish
player has won her four previous meetings with Petkovic, including twice this
year, but Radwanska said she wasn't expecting an easy time on Sunday.
"It's always very tough and very tight against
Andrea," the 11th-seeded Radwanska said. "She's playing very well,
very consistent. I think I'll have to play even better than today to beat her
tomorrow." Earlier in the day, ninth-seeded Petkovic downed Monica
Niculescu 6-2, 6-0.
Petkovic said she drew confidence from her increasingly
steady performances, having reached the quarterfinals at each of this year's
Australian, French and US Opens. Saturday's win marked her first victory in
three meetings with the Romanian.
"I was really satisfied with the intensity and the
focus I managed to have with each and every point and I think that made the
difference today," the German said.
Cilic continued his recent run of good form in a match
between the big-hitting Croats that featured a combined 22 aces.
"Today was a really tough match, especially that first
set," Cilic said. "You could feel the tension in the air." Winning
against the player who beat him in the first round at Wimbledon was a further
confidence boost, he said.
"That means a lot, that I can beat those guys and my
tennis is at a good level and on a level that's high enough to play against
those guys and beat them," Cilic said.
