Marion in final
Top seed Marion Bartoli reached her second final of the season Saturday, battling back to beat Taiwanese qualifier Chan Yung-jan 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 at the WTA Carlsbad tournament.
The world number 10 from France will square off on Sunday for the title against second seed Dominika Cibulkova, who beat Russian Nadia Petrova 7-6 (10/8), 6-1.
Bartoli passed her third consecutive three-set test, and has been on court in excess of nine hours this week.
Cibulkova, in contrast, has yet to go past two sets and said that her light workload may benefit her title bid.
"I feel really fresh and good. I didn't have a three set match and all the other girls, they played crazy long matches," said the 14th-ranked Slovak. "So I'm feeling really good for tomorrow, and I think it can be my advantage for me."
Bartoli, who has played with a sore hip, struggled mightily in the opening set and Chan, ranked 161st in the world, profited from the top seed's 20 unforced errors.
Bartoli said it wasn't, in fact, her troublesome hip that bothered her in the early going but an ankle.
"The doctor gave me some anti-inflammatories before the match started, and it took 45 minutes before they started to kick in," she said. "I was feeling a lot better in the second and the third set, but obviously maybe I had a bit of fatigue from yesterday's match when I finished really late.
"She was also playing very well in the first set, so maybe the combination of the two made the first set 6-1 to her," Bartoli added.
Just when she looked headed for a quick exit Bartoli's physical complaints faded away and she slowly began to take charge of the match against her less experienced opponent.
Bartoli earned and then surrendered an early second-set break but broke again for a 5-3 lead on her way to levelling the match.
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