Erakovic dethrones Paszek to reach first WTA final

QUEBEC CITY – New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic rallied to defeat defending champion Tamira Paszek 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday and reach her first WTA final at the $220,000 Quebec City Challenge.

In Sunday’s championship match, the 85th-ranked Kiwi will face Czech sixth seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova who easily defeated Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek 6-4, 6-3 in the other semi-final.

Like Erakovic, the 25-year-old Zahlavova Strycova is gunning for her first WTA Tour title. They have never faced each other on the tour.

The 23-year-old Erakovic, a 2008 Olympian, had been 0-3 in prior WTA semi-final matches. She had not reached a WTA semi-final since 2008 at Birmingham. Her other semi-finals, also in 2008, were at Memphis and her hometown of Auckland.

Austrian third seed Paszek, who reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final this year at Wimbledon, needed only 36 mninutes to capture the opening set, in which she did not drop a point when facing a second serve from Erakovic.

But Erakovic battled back and broke in the final game to complete her comeback after two hours and 27 minutes.

Paszek, idled by an abdominal injury since a July semi-final run at Washington, won her only WTA titles last year at Quebec and at Portoroz in 2006, each time as a qualifier.