DUBAI — Czech sixth seed Petra Kvitova will face Sara Errani of Italy in the final of the Dubai Open after beating Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets in Friday's second semifinal. Left-hander Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, disposed of eighth seed Wozniacki 6-3, 6-4 in 82 minutes after Errani got the better of fellow Italian Roberta Vinci earlier in the day. Errani, the French Open finalist, continued her upward spiral by beating her best friend and doubles partner to reach the 12th final of her career. The 25-year-old fifth seed did so with a 6-3, 6-3 win over her unseeded fellow Italian to underline why she has been voted the WTA's most improved player of the year. Vinci is the other half of the world's top doubles partnership, whose 25-match winning streak last year was the longest by any women's doubles pair for 18 years. This week, however, they took a break from doubles to play only singles, but if the idea was also to spend time apart it was only partially successful. But they found themselves battling each other for an hour and 23 minutes of rather old-style rallies in which slice and accurate placement played a bigger part than power and flailing topspin. Errani prevailed partly because she imposed her busy approach on the rallies more energetically. However, it was noticeable that she toned down some of her impact grunts, suggesting that comradeship may occasionally have vied with competitiveness for priority. Errani had earlier said that they spent about 300 days a year together, and Vinci had described it as like "playing against a sister." "It's not easy to play your friend," Errani agreed. Elsewhere, Serena Williams, the world No. 1, and Victoria Azarenka, the only unbeaten leading player on the women's tour this year, have been penalized for their late withdrawals from the Dubai Open. Serena, who had a bad back and withdrew Wednesday, has had $50,000 forfeited from the WTA's bonus pool, and zero points imposed for one tournament on her world ranking calculation. Azarenka, who had a bruised heel and withdrew Monday, had $100,000 forfeited from the WTA's bonus pool and zero points imposed for one tournament on her rankings calculation. Azarenka's stronger punishment reflects the fact that hers was the second successive time she had pulled out from the Dubai Open after the entry deadline. The forfeitures seem of little financial consequence when the bonus pool total is as much as $4,900,000, and when these two players also earn many millions of dollars a year from prize money and sponsorships. — Agencies
