Mara Santangelo storms into finals

Bangalore, Feb 17 (UNI) Top seed Mara Santangelo of Italy trounced Olga Savchuk of Ukraine in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 to storm into the finals of the 175,000 Dollar Sony Ericsson International WTA tournament here today.

Defending champion Santangelo, ranked 36, proved her supremacy by wrapping up the game within 50 minutes, giving no room for her opponent to settle down.

The only break Olga was able to take was in the first set when Santangelo lost the serve due to unforseen error. Otherwise, it was entirely Santangelo who commanded the court.

A determined Santangelo, the only seed left in the tournament with underdogs defeating all the other seeds, including Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza, had a cake walk since there was no force either in Olga's service or return. Olga, who had shown the doors to fourth seed J Kostanic Tosic of Croatia in the quarterfinals yesterday, failed to maintain her aggressiveness.

''The easy win today will give me more energy to play in the finals tomorrow. I began playing an aggressive game right from the beginning and it fetched me the expected result,'' Santangelo said in her post-match comments.

Santangelo, just one match away from her second singles title, said ''it does not matter against whom I play in the finals tomorrow.'' Asked whether she had a clue that she would have a cake walk today, she said ''I did not have any idea. It was after taking the lead in the first set that I got confidence of winning. I was keeping her tired. I think I played well today.'' Santangelo would meet the winner of the second semifinal in progress between Tzipora Obziler of Israel and teenaged Yaroslova Shvedova of Russia, who had eliminated Sania in the quarterfinals yesterday.

UNI