MOSCOW: second seed Victoria Azarenka reached her first Kremlin Cup final with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez Saturday. In Sunday's final, the powerful Belarussian will face sixth-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko, who thrashed compatriot Vera Dushevina 6-1, 6-1 in the second semifinal. World No. 10 Azarenka dominated eighth-seeded Martinez Sanchez from the baseline, breaking her serve in the fifth game to take the opening set and twice more in the second to seal a first victory over the Spaniard in three attempts. “I had the right tactics against Sanchez,” said Azarenka, who had already secured a place in next week's season-ending WTA championships in Doha when American Serena Williams pulled out with a foot injury. Azarenka must now get past 24th-ranked Kirilenko who has been playing some of the best tennis of her career having dropped only five games in her three previous matches in Moscow. The annual ATP and WTA indoor tournament has been hit by withdrawals of high-profile players, especially among the women. Home favorites Vera Zvonareva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova as well as Italy's 2009 champion Francesca Schiavone all pulled out in the run-up to the event. Fourth-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis had to work much harder than the women's finalists to reach his first Kremlin Cup showpiece on his Moscow debut. The world No. 19, the highest seed left in the men's draw, battled for nearly 2-1/2 hours before beating unseeded Uzbek Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-7, 7-6. Baghdatis will face another unseeded opponent, Viktor Troicki, Sunday. The 43rd-ranked Serbian ended the giant-killing run of Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas by winning 6-3, 6-3. Federer marches into final In Stockholm, Roger Federer marched into the Stockholm Open final by overcoming fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 7-6 (5), 6-2 Saturday. Federer will play Germany's Florian Mayer in Sunday's final, after he beat Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3). Like in his quarterfinal against Stanislas Wawrinka, Federer started slowly. Ljubicic broke him in the third game, but Federer found his rhythm to come back and win the set on a tiebreak, prompting Ljubicic to throw his racket in frustration. Federer ripped a glorious backhand winner that 17th-ranked Ljubicic could only watch on the way to taking a 3-2 lead in the second. He broke again in the seventh game and served an ace for the victory. Goerges-Vinci final In Luxembourg, Julia Goerges will play for her second title of the year after winning her first clash with Angelique Kerber 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in their all-German semifinal at the Luxembourg Open Saturday. Goerges won her first career title in July at Bad Gastein. Goerges, at No. 8 the only seed to make the semifinals, will meet Roberta Vinci of Italy in Sunday's final. Vinci accounted for Anne Keothavong of Britain 6-4, 6-2 to book a spot in her second final this year. Vinci has won twice on tour, at 2009 Barcelona and 2007 Bogota.
