MOSCOW: Samantha Stosur and Simona Halep advanced to the final of the Kremlin Cup with straight-set victories Sunday.

Stosur proceeded to her second straight final by beating her doubles partner Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-4, while Halep routed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-1 to advance to her fifth final this season.

In the men’s semifinals, qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstsn upset defending champion Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-1, 1-6, 6-4. Kukushikin reached his first final since winning his only title in St. Petersburg in 2010, and will play either top-seeded Richard Gasquet or Ivo Karlovic.

Kuznetsova couldn’t hold serve once in the first set, winning just six of 23 points when serving, while Stosur was broken twice as well. Stosur took a 5-1 lead in the second but then failed to serve out the match twice.

“At the start we were both struggling to hold serve and she had love-40 again on me and my second service again and I was able to get out of that,” Stosur said. “And I think that gave me a little bit of a head up and to win that first set 6-2 was good. It was still pretty tight all the way through with who was going to hold.” Stosur sealed the victory on her second match point when the Russian sent a shot wide.

“We know each other’s games pretty well. So I guess you’ve got to take your opportunities when you get them,” she said.

Stosur won her second title of the season and fifth of her career in Osaka, Japan, last Sunday. The Australian was a runner-up to Caroline Wozniacki here last year.

The 18th-ranked Halep, who has won the first four titles of her career this season, jumped out to a 4-0 lead in both sets against Pavlyuchenkova. The Romanian sealed the victory on her second match point when Pavlyuchenkova double-faulted.

“The score, it looks like it was very easy, but it wasn’t,” Halep said. “Today I moved very well and I hit the ball very strong. She didn’t move very well today. Of course I’d like to win my year’s fifth final but it will definitely be a hard task as Samantha (Stosur) is a top player in a good form.” After trading sets, the 102nd-ranked Kukushkin took a 4-1 lead in the decider and then served for the match at 5-3. Seppi broke back only to fall 40-love down on his serve in the next game. Kukushkin broke again when the Italian sent a shot into the net.

Kukushkin is the first qualifier to reach the final in Moscow since Paul-Henri Mathieu won the title in 2002.

Haase upsets Tsonga

In Vienna, Robin Haase of the Netherlands upset top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-6 (4) on Saturday to set up a final against Tommy Haas at the Erste Bank Open.

Haase failed to serve out the match at 5-4 but won six of the last seven points in the tiebreaker against the eighth-ranked Frenchman.

The second-seeded Haas reached his third final of the season after rallying to beat Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (0). The German, who won in Vienna in 2001, earned his 14th career title in Munich in May.

It will be Haase’s fourth career final but first on hard court. The Dutchman won both his career titles in Austria — in Kitzbuehel in 2011 and ‘12. He lost the final in Gstaad, Switzerland in July.