Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will play Belinda Bencic in the final of the Kremlin Cup after beating Karolina Muchova in three sets on Saturday. Russia’s Pavlyuchenkova, 28, will play in her ‘home’ final for the third time, having beaten Irina-Camelia Begu to take the title in 2014 before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova the following year. She had to dig deep to advance to the showpiece, fighting off a match point before coming through 6-4 6-7(6) 6-1 against the Wimbledon quarter-finalist. Pavlyuchenkova has been ranked as high as 13th in the world but is currently 36th. Sunday’s match will be her first final on hard courts since winning the Hong Kong Open in 2017. Unsurprisingly, she was delighted with the result and wants to raise the silverware this weekend. “It’s amazing to be back in the final for the third time,” she said after the match. “Every year I play here, I look forward to play and to have a trophy every time I play. I’m one step closer now, and that’s very special. “I’m very pleased to be in the final and I have one more tomorrow.”
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