Caroline Wozniacki meets Tsvetana Pironkova in the semi-final - Tournament of Champions 2012
World number 44, Tsvetana Pironkova, lost to the 13th ranked Russian star, Nadia Petrova, in her third Round Robin contest and despite of two losses, managed to book a berth in the semi-final of the Qatar Airways Tournament
of Champions in Sofia. The tournament that is played at her home soil has luckily given another chance to the 25-year-old Bulgarian who is the sole representative of her country in the tournament having received a wildcard before the start of the tournament.
Sad scenes were witnessed at the indoor hard courts of Sofia in the last two days. Another wildcard entrant, Maria Kirilenko, withdrew from the contest due to upper respiratory illness and the lightning struck twice as the Chinese
superstar, Jie Zheng, also pulled out of the contest against the Kirilenko’s replacement (Sofia Arvidsson) just before the closure of the opening set. The two withdrawals allowed the Bulgarian top ranked contestant to reach the semi-finals.
After her loss to the Petrova, Pironkova said, “With each match I'm playing better and better and I hope I can still keep improving tomorrow. It is going to be tough against Caroline, but I think I'll have my chances. The crowd
has been amazing this week. They're getting bigger and bigger each day, which makes me very happy, and tomorrow we're expecting full capacity, so it'll be an amazing atmosphere out there. I'm very excited to play.”
She was a leading by a set at one stage but squandered the lead and lost the encounter 7-5, 1-6, 3-6. She has ended second in her group and faces the former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, for the semi-final battle on Saturday.
Recapping the history between the two semi-final qualifiers one can witness no positive for the Bulgarian superstar. Pironkova has lost all four previous battles and the latest won contested in the Hopman Cup at Perth where she fought really hard but couldn’t
keep her hopes alive after going down a break down early in the final set.
Wozniacki is the top seed contestant in the tournament and won all her Round Robin matches. She defeated Su-Wei Hsieh and Roberta Vinci in straight sets and battled a bit longer against Daniela Hantuchova to grind out a win in
three sets. She will look to conquer the field but it will not be easy with the home crowd backing their local superstar throughout the match.
Other semi-final will take place between Nadia Petrova and Roberta Vinci.
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