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Clara Tauson will play Donna Vekic in the title clash at the Courmayeur Ladies Open on Sunday. Earlier, on Sunday, both players came through their respective semi-finals. Tauson, the fifth seed in Italy this week, battled hard against her third-seeded rival, Liudmila Samsonova.
After two hours and 27 minutes of play, Tauson claimed a 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 victory that involved saving five match points in the second set tiebreak. After the match, Tauson noted, “I thought I was finished in the tiebreak, and I just tried to put the ball in the court because she’s such a big server.
I was just trying to guess where she was serving at the end, and I don’t know what happened! She was serving so good, she was pushing me all the time, just hitting so hard, so I was always in the defence. As many know, I like to play offence, but sometimes you have to do what you got to do”.
Courmayeur Ladies Open: First-time face-off between Clara Tauson and Donna Vekic
Vekic, Tauson’s opponent in the final, came through her semi-final in a completely different manner. The Croatian took just 63 minutes en route to a 6-0, 6-2 demolishing of Italian seventh seed, Jasmine Paolini.
Speaking after the win, Vekic shared, “Maybe it looks easy by the score, but it was actually a really tough match. She’s a very tough player, she was making me play a lot of balls, also being aggressive”.
The Courmayeur Ladies Open final will be the first time Clara Tauson and Donna Vekic will be facing each other. In terms of finals played, Tauson’s reached her third final of the 2021 season this week and will be attempting to win her third title.
Vekic, meanwhile, will be playing her first final since the Nottingham Open in 2019. Talking about her upcoming match-up, Vekic downplayed expectations. “I’m going to make a plan with my coach and try to focus on my game and try to play my game. Hopefully, it will be good enough tomorrow,” she shared.