Clijsters’ Summer Run Continues

Top-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium extended her summer hard court winning streak to 24 matches as she defeated seventh-seeded Nicole Vaidisova, 6-2, 7-6 (0) in an Acura Classic semifinal match on Saturday night.

Clijsters advances to the Acura Classic championship final for the second time in her career. She reached the 2003 final only to lose to her compatriot, Justine Henin-Hardenne.

In her semifinal victory over Vaidisova, the near capacity crowd on Stadium Court had barely settled into their seats as Clijsters jumped out to a 5-1 lead. She would go on to win the set 6-2 in 29 minutes.

Clijsters won 12 of 17 points to open the second set and take a 3-0 lead. The Belgian appeared headed for an easy victory having broken Vaidisova twice in the first three games as she took control of the match.

Vaidisova however found the range on her shots and came back to win four of the next five games to level the set at 4-4.

“I think she started playing better. I don’t think I changed a lot,” Clijsters said. “She started making a lot of her shots. I had to step it up a little bit and be aggressive.”

The set remained tied and eventually went to a tiebreaker.

Vaidisova, who served an ace to start the match, served a double fault to open the tiebreak. That was all the advantage Clijsters needed as Vaidisova committed six straight forehand errors to end the match, which took one-hour and 18 minutes. “If you’re in a tiebreaker, every point is important,” Clijsters said. “In a tiebreak everything can happen. “
Clijsters will face second-seeded Maria Sharapova in Sunday’s final. When asked what she would need to do to win, she responded, “To have my serve there, it’s very important against Maria. She’s definitely not going to miss as many returns as Vaidisova did today. I have to make sure to hit a lot of first serves.”

• Clijsters improves her 2006 match record to 36-8.
• Clijsters is now 2-0 in career head-to-head meetings with Vaidisova.
• Clijsters is ranked number two in the world.
• Clijsters is making her sixth career Acura Classic appearance.
• Clijsters has won 32 career tour singles titles.
• Vaidisova was making her Acura Classic debut.
• When the tour rankings are released on Monday, Vaidisova will be ranked in the Top Ten for the first time in her career.
• Vaidisova is ranked 12th in the world.
• Vaidisova’s 2006 record is now 31-11.

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