Sakkari, Kontaveit in St. Petersburg final

Maria Sakkari will face Anett Kontaveit in the final of the WTA Tour's St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy after the top-10 players came through the semi-finals.

Top seed Sakkari defeated Irina-Camelia Begu 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 after more than three hours of action.

Second-seeded Kontaveit had a somewhat easier path to the decider by beating Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-4.

Sakkari fought back from a break down in the third set to advance to her fourth career final.

Kontaveit stretched her run of indoor wins to 19 straight matches, which includes titles at Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca at the end of last year.

Greek world No.7 Sakkari and Estonian world No.9 Kontaveit have met 12 times and split the wins evenly.

Kontaveit won three of their five meetings in 2021.