The semi finals were both very entertaining battles.
(Rank/Seed)
1/1 Williams improved to 6-0 against (4/3) Radwanska with a close win 76(3) 64. Twice Radwanska recovered from a break behind in the 1st set, at 2-3 and 4-5 down (breaking to love in the latter!) as she used her mixture of flat and sliced hitting to disrupt the number one. In the tiebreak though, Williams played deep and aggressive to take control. Though the Pole led 3-1 in the second, Williams raised her game again to win 5 of the next 6 games to reach her 4th career final here having hit 45 winners past Radwanska. Radwanska should be proud of this match which was a marked improvement on her 60 63 loss in Miami this year.
27/- Cirstea continued her giant killing form with a 61 76(5) win over (5/4) Li; her 1st top 5 win. Cirstea dropped only 5 points on serve as she played as close to a perfect set as possible. Li turned the screw in the 2nd set though as she led 4-1 and 5-2 as Cirstea began to miss and became temperamental. However, a chat with her coach soon settled that and Li herself grew tense as her forehand and serve deserted her in the face of Cirstea's surprising consistency. This allowed Cirstea to resume control and win the next 4 games before it was her time to get nervous as she missed 2 match points in the 12th game. In the tiebreak, Li initially looked solid in building yet another 4-1 lead but ultimately was let down by double faults, hitting one down match point #3. Cirstea moves through to only her 3rd career final; her 1st at this level.
Williams is looking for her 54th career title, her 8th this year and 3rd in Toronto. Cirstea in contrast is looking for only her 2nd title. Williams leads the head to head 2-0, losing 3 games or less in both matches! However, Cirstea has beaten 12 top 10 players before and with the run she's on here, why not make it 13?
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