Unseeded teenagers, former world junior No. 1 Ivana Jorovic of Serbia and Austria's Barbara Haas set up a title clash in the QNET Open USD 50,000 ITF Women's Circuit here today.
They secured hard-fought semifinal victories over second-seeded Anastasiya Vasylyeva of Ukraine and seventh-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium respectively at the DLTA Complex today.
Playing her maiden USD 50,000 ITF tournament, the 17-year-old Jorovic was over the moon after winning her semifinal with Anastasiya Vasylyeva 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The 22-year-old Ukraine left-hander banked on her experience to win the opening set but allowed unforced errors to creep into her game.
Anastasiya Vasylyeva, with seven ITF singles titles, was expected to put herself in line for her second crown this year but Jorovic raised her game a notch to win the final set easily.
The teenager, who won four USD 10,000 ITF titles in 2012 and 2013, had beaten fourth-seeded Tadja Majeric of Slovekia in the first round after securing an automatic berth in the main draw.
Elise Mertens became the third seeded player to face defeat at the hands of 18-year-old Barbara Haas this week. No. 8 Sofiya Kovalets of Ukraine and the top-seeded Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria had ended up on the losing side against Barbara Haas in the first round and the quarterfinals respectively.
The Austrian, who has five USD 10,000 ITF titles, based her victory today on a strong defence and that was something that Elise Mertens had no hesitation in accepting.
Sadly for Mertens, despite being second seeded with Marina Melnikova (Russia), she ended up on the losing side of the doubles final where the China's Chang Liu and Jia-Jing Lu ran out easy winners.
