In the semi finals played at the Olympic School Tennis courts here today top seeded Russian Pervak who has not dropped a set so far continued with her form stopping the winning run of Poland’s Urszula Radwanska 6-2,6-4 , while Birnerova who turned 27 this Wednesday was lucky to make it to the finals as Title holder and Sixth seeded Russian Alla Kudryavtseva had to retire from the semi finals with the score reading 3-6,5-3 due to hamstring injury.

Left hander top seed Ksenia Pervak a semi-finalist at Bad Gastein and finalist a Baku earlier this year, came back from being 1-4 down in the second set and registering a 6-2, 6-4 win over Polish player Urszula Radwanska who was contesting i her first ever semi-final of her career.

Pervak played attacking tennis in the first set breaking Radwanska in the 5th and the 7th games in the second set. Radwanska known for her come backs, seemed like making one more today racing off to a 4-1 lead in the second set breaking Pervak in the 4th game.

Pervak took some time and relaxed a bit to get hold of the situation accelerating her speed and making Radwanska move and forcing her into errors. Pervak broke back in the 7th game and holding her serve to level scores at 4-4.

In the 9th game Pervak broke rather easily hitting two brilliant cross court forehand returns and going up 5-4, the top seed who now looks the favourite for the crown then served out intelligently to hold on to the serve and finish off the match and make it to the second final on the WTA circuit this year.

"It was a tough match and also coming back from 1-4 in the second set. I’m happy to have made it," said the top seed Pervak after her win. "I was feeling a little tired from my yesterday’s doubles match but it is important that I won today," she added.

Pervak’s will take on unseeded 115th ranked and Eva Birnerova of Czech Republic in the finals and top prize of $37000. Birnerova emulated her previous best results of reaching the round of 16 at Bogota and Budapest this year scoring a somewhat lucky win over sixth seeded Alla Kudryavtseva who had to retire due to a bad hamstring injury with the score reading 5-3 in favour of Birnerova in the second set.

Kudryavtseva who won her first career title at Tashkent last year started badly broken twice in the 1st and the 3rd game, but the Russian played composed tennis losing just 10 points after that and breaking Birnerova in the 4th,6th and 8th games and holding her serves to win the first set 6-3.

The reigning champion looked like cruising into the final racing to a 3-1 lead , a long7th game saw Birnerova save a break point playing intensely, the same game saw Kudryavtseva pull her hamstring and call a trainer on court.

The 23 year old and 64th ranked Russian tried to serve in the 8th game and was broken at love, decided to throw in the towel and decided to retire paving way for Birnerova to make it to her first ever WTA Tour Finals. The victory here will give the winners here 280 points.

The doubles event also threw some unexpected results as the Kichenok twins from Ukraine Lyudmyla and Nadiya made it to their first ever career WTA finals, the twins who rode on all the luck during the week edged out Urszula Radwanska and Evgeniya Rodina 5-7,6-0,10-8 in the semi-finals.

The twins will take on second seeded Eleni Daniilidou and Vitalia Diatchenko who managed to scrape past the third seeded pair of local star Akgul Amanmuradova and Alexandra Panova 3-6, 6-1, 10-7

Following are the results

MAIN DRAW Singles (Semifinals)

S1 Ksenia Pervak (RUS) bt , Urszula Radwanska (POL) 6-2,6-4 Eva Birnerova (CZE) bt S.6 Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS ) 3-6,5-3 (retd)

DOUBLES (Semifinals)

Lyudmyla/ Nadiya Kichenok (Ukr) bt Urszula Radwanska / Evgeniya Rodina 5-7,6-0,10-8, Eleni Daniilidou / Vitalia Diatchenko bt, Akgul Amanmuradova( Uzb) / Alexandra Panova 3-6, 6-1,10-7