* Defending champion survives test to reach final
* Home favourite Tamarine beats Karatantcheva (Updates after second semi-final)
By Rattabhum Ninsiri
PATTAYA, Thailand, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Top seed and defending champion Vera Zvonareva booked her place in the final of the Pattaya Open on Saturday after a tough 6-2 4-6 6-3 victory over Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova.
The Russian, who was barely tested in the earlier rounds, showed her class with a polished final-set performance to clinch the match after the fourth-seeded Shvedova battled back in the second.
Zvonareva will meet home favourite Tamarine Tanasugarn in Sunday’s final after she overpowered another Kazakh, Sesil Karatantcheva, 6-2 6-0 to reach the 10th final of her 16-year professional career.
“It was very tough match. It was difficult for me, my form is not good overall. I’ve not shown my best tennis but I tried to play a smart game,” Zvonareva told reporters.
The American-born Tamarine played solidly throughout her one-hour-20-minute match, winning game after game with powerful forehands that forced woeful returns from Karatantcheva.
With the home crowd behind her in the scorching heat, the unseeded Thai, who at 32 is one of the oldest players on the tour, broke the 20-year-old Kazakh twice to open up a 4-0 lead in a one-sided first set.
Karatantcheva put up a lot of resistance in the second set but struggled with her serve and squandered chances to break the 2008 Wimbledon quarter-finalist.
“The match wasn’t as easy as it seemed from the score, especially being held six or seven times at deuce on second set. I just tried to take each game at a time,” Tamarine said.