Unseeded Kamila Kerimbayeva faces top seed Magda Linette in ITF final

Kazakhstan's Kamila Kerimbayeva shocked fourth seed Gioia Barbiery of Italy in straight sets to make it to the singles final of the NECC-ITF women's USD 25,000 event at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune on Friday.

Unseeded Karimbayeva, who ousted India's Prerna Bhambri in the quarters yesterday, will meet the tournament's top seed Magda Linette of Poland in the title clash on Saturday.

Second seeds Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (Kyrgyzstan) and Peangtarn Plipuech (Thailand) clinched the doubles title later in the afternoon with a hard fought 7-5 7-5 win over Jocelyn Rae-Anna Smith of Britain in the final.

In the first singles semi-final, Kerimbayeva caught the Italian opponent by surprise with some aggressive hitting from both the flanks. Barbiery failed to handle the pace of Kerimbayeva's strokes, as she got broken in the fourth and the eighth game of the first set.

The second set was a similar story as the Kazakh raced to a 5-1 lead, and eventually completed a 6-2 6-2 win in just 68 minutes.

Top seed Linette won her semi-final against third seed Diana Marcinkevica in quite contrasting style. Linette threw away a 4-2 first set lead, losing it in the tie-breaker eventually.

The Polish woman, however, found her rhythm just in time, winning the second set at the cost of just one game. She again broke the Latvian player in the first and the fifth games of the decider to win the match 6-7 (2-7) 6-1 6-2 in two hours and 10 minutes.