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Bovina too strong for weak Kandarr

Estoril, Portugal, April 2001

The first match of the women's semi-finals took place at the beginning of this afternoon. It was between Russian, Elena Bovina. who came through qualifying, and Jana Kandarr, number 73 in the world. The Russian player took the win 2 sets to 0, with a score of 7-5 6-3.

Bovina, without a doubt the player with the more consistent game, now reaches her first WTA tour final. Kandarr, having eliminated the second seed in the tournament, did not live up to the high expectations she had raised in her earlier matches at the Estoril Open.

Bovina needed 1 hr 24 min to overcome a tentative and unfocussed Kandarr, who committed a large number of unforced errors during the match.

The balance was initially fairly even in the first set. Bovina made the first break of serve, but Kandarr soon broke back. But after a while the Russian player began to gain the ascendancy. Gaining another break, she closed out the set in the 12th game, after having wasted three set-points

In the second set the standard of play fell a little. Even so, Elena Bovina seemed to retain the advantage over her adversary, confirmed in the eighth game, when the Russian player broke Kandarr's serve again to lead 5-3. Bovina closed out the match quickly, taking advantage of an unforced error from her opponent to take match-point

Bovina will now meet the winner of the match between the Spaniard, Angeles Montolio, and the Belgian, Justine Henin, in the final.

Interviews:

Elena Bovina said:
" I am very happy with my form today. I was a little nervous because it was my first semi-final match on the WTA Tour. Jana Kandarr beat some good clay-court specialists in this tournament, but it seemed to me that she too was nervous."

Jana Kandarr said:
"I didn't play my proper game. I lost concentration in the match and committed too many errors. I missed easy balls that I should have got in... ".

Of the 6ft 2in Bovina she says " She is an enormous player. It seems almost impossible to pass her."