After cruising past world No. 11 Anna Kournikova in Friday's quarterfinals, top-seeded Martina Hingis was forced to play competitive tennis on Saturday against Chanda Rubin of the U.S. The Swiss star responded with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 victory over Rubin to reach the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Hingis will face No. 6 seed Sandrine Testud of France, who came from behind to beat Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the other semifinal.
"Coming off an easy win made it difficult today. You have to turn around your strategy," said Hingis, who basically won without a strategy on Friday. In the semifinal, she struggled to find a way past Rubin, who served better and rallied longer than Kournikova had a day earlier.