Petrova and Golovin into Stuttgart final (Roundup)

By John Bagratuni Oct 7, 2006, 17:14 GMT

Stuttgart, Germany - Nadia Petrova and Tatiana Golovin defied the odds on Saturday to advance into the final of the 650,000-dollar Porsche Grand Prix.

The fourth-seeded Petrova beat number 2 seed and follow-Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova for the first time in their third meeting, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 in 1 hour 59 minutes.

Unseeded French teenager Golovin also headed into her semi-final with Swiss 5 seed Patty Schnyder with an 0-2 record, but won 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 in 2:11 hours.

'I guess I learnt my lesson from the previous matches. I tried to be aggressive. In the end I got tired and a little nervous and I was glad I made it,' said Golovin.

The 25th-ranked Golovin will be seeking her first career title in her third final after runner-up finishes in Birmingham 2004 and Tokyo 2005.

She impressed recently with a place in the US Open quarter-finals (with a third-round win over Petrova en route) and also made the Miami semi-finals earlier in the year. She also has a mixed doubles Grand Slam title from the 2005 French Open.

Schnyder hit two forehands wide to drop serve in the opening game and never got back into the set due to many errors. The Swiss raised her game to lock the sets but threw away a break for 3-2 in the final set as Golovin bounced back instantly for 3-3.

Golovin, who was born in Moscow but came to France at the age of eight months, then won on her first match point when Schnyder netted a backhand.

'I will go for it, I have nothing to lose. I am playing well and am very excited,' said the French.

Golovin did not want to reveal whether she may change her white dress for a black one like Saturday (and in the first round) when things were not going her way.

'I don't want to say that I won because of the change of dress. But I may do it again if something goes wrong,' said Golovin, adding that she doesn't consider herself overly superstitious.

Golovin enters Sunday's final for a 100,000 dollars winners cheque or a sports car from the title sponsor with a 3-0 record against Petrova.

But that does not deter the Russian who has already won four titles in 2006.

'It will be tough. But I hope tomorrow is the day that I will win,' she said.

Petrova stormed through the first set against in-form Kuznetsova, who had won the title in her last two events in Bali and Beijing. Kuznetsova got the second set but Petrova finally raised her arms in delight when Kuznetsova netted a forehand on match point.

'It was very tough. I almost lost faith. I got to a stage where I just fought for every point,' said Petrova.