Dementieva, Vesnina reach ASB Classic final

Elena Dementieva and Elena Vesnina set up an all-Russian final at the ASB Classic tennis tournament with contrasting semifinal wins on Friday.

Top-seeded Dementieva, ranked No. 4, swept past Aravane Rezai of France 6-2, 6-2 in 67 minutes while Vesnina battled for 2 hours, 57 minutes to beat Britain's Anne Keothavong 6-7 (3), 6-1, 7-5.

In reaching her first WTA final, Vesnina set up a meeting with her doubles partner Dementieva and produced the 17th all-Russian final in WTA singles since 2003.

"I'm very excited. This is my first final and I'm playing against Elena," Vesnina said.

"We played against each other a few years ago. She's an amazing girl, a very good player and a real sportswoman."

Dementieva continued her steady form improvement through the tournament to brush aside the hard-hitting Rezai, last year's beaten finalist, in sets lasting 33 and 34 minutes.

Rezai tried to upset the tall Russian with her aggressive play and powerful ground strokes but Dementieva, despite struggling with her second serve, was able to absorb and turn back the pressure.

"I expected the match to be like this," Dementieva said.

"She's a hard hitter so I was getting ready for a hard match and I was very focused. I tried to be patient, sometimes to play with defense. And it worked."

Vesnina and Keothavong were both seeking their first WTA final. A pair of service breaks sent the opening set into a tiebreaker, won by Keothavong when she took the third and seventh points against serve.

Vesnina twice summoned the trainer to ice strained leg muscles. However, she soon found her rhythm and minimized errors to win the second set in 36 minutes.

The third set went with serve until the seventh game when Vesnina broke for a 4-3 lead but Keothavong immediately broke back for 4-4.

Vesnina broke again to lead 6-5 but squandered four match points from 40-0, endured four deuces and saved two break points before winning the match with an ace.