Clijsters vs Kvitova at Open Gaz de France finalKim Clijsters beat Kaia Kanepi 6-1, 7-5 to reach the Open Gaz de France final.
Clijsters will play Petra Kvitova, who defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-2, 6-0.
Clijsters has won both her previous meetings with Kvitova in straight sets.
Clijsters raced into a 4-0 lead before Kanepi finally won a game.
The US Open champion dropped her serve three times in the second set where she trailed 4-2 and 5-4 with Kanepi even serving to level the match.
After saving the first two match points, Kanepi then hit a backhand return into the net. Kanepi lost her serve seven times in a match lasting 1 hour, 20 minutes.
“I played aggressive, went for the line and tried to make her move,” Clijsters said.
“She made a lot more unforced errors, really wasn’t playing as aggressive as I thought she would,” Clijsters said. “She was not making her first serves quite as much, that gave me more advantages at the start of the rally.”
“I didn’t serve quite as well, and she started going for it a bit more, tried to keep the rallies a bit shorter,” Clijsters said.
About her final opponent the Belgian said:
“(Kvitova) always likes to play forward, she has this easy hit, very deep as well. Over the last few months she’s been able to stay a little more consistent,” Clijsters said. “When I played her at the U.S. Open, she was really on (form) three games in a row … (opening) up the court with that slice out wide with the serve.
“But then she could also make so many unforced errors and rush into it.”
Kvitova broke Mattek-Sands’ serve three times in each set and wrapped up her victory in just 59 minutes.
“I played my best match of the week. I was focused on every point,” Kvitova said. “I was in the final in Brisbane, but this is a bigger final and I’m looking forward to it.”
“I don’t think I will be stressed, because she is the best player (and I have) nothing to lose,” Kvitova said about playing Clijsters.
