KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) — Carla Suarez Navarro advanced to the final at the Miami Open after topping Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-3 in a semifinal matchup on Thursday.
The 12th-seeded Spaniard didn’t face a single break point and will meet either top-seeded Serena Williams or third-seeded Simona Halep in Saturday’s final.
It’s the eighth time Suarez Navarro has reached a WTA final. She is the first Spanish woman to make the final at Key Biscayne since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1993. She’s looking for her second career title.
“It’s a really important tournament for me,” Suarez Navarro said. “I just practice all day, all the time during the offseason to play in a final like this.”
Petkovic, the No. 9 seed from Germany, lost to Suarez Navarro for the third time in five meetings. Petkovic had not dropped a set in any of her first four matches this year at Key Biscayne.
Suarez Navarro took control of the opening set with an early break, then broke Petkovic again when the German’s forehand sailed well long to end the set. And in the second, Suarez Navarro broke yet again for a 4-2 lead and finished it off not long afterward.
Suarez Navarro had been pushed to three-setters in each of her previous two matches. She threw her fists in the air and smacked a ball into the stands with joy when Petkovic’s final shot sailed wide.
Williams and Halep — the last woman to beat the world’s No. 1 — were set to play Thursday night to determine the other finalist.
The schedule Thursday includes a pair of men’s quarterfinal matches, with fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan facing 22nd-seed John Isner of the United States in the afternoon — the first head-to-head matchup between those two — and No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia meeting No. 6 David Ferrer of Spain in the evening.
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