AMELIA ISLAND, FLORIDA (TICKER) -- Amelie Mauresmo excelled, Amanda Coetzer escaped.
The sixth-seeded Mauresmo dismissed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, 6-3, 6-2, in Saturday's semifinals of the $565,000 Bausch & Lomb Championships.
Later, the fourth-seeded Coetzer rallied for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Nadia Petrova of Russia, setting up an unlikely final matchup Sunday.
The seventh-seeded Sanchez Vicario came in having turned around her season with an upset of world No. 1 Martina Hingis and was gunning for her third title at this claycourt event.
But fatigue may have caught up with her against Mauresmo, who was rested and playing the best tennis of her career. The hard-hitting Frenchwoman overpowered her opponent for her 14th straight win.
"I just played tactically very well," Mauresmo said. "I didn't have to play a match yesterday and physically I was feeling very good."
The same could not be said for Sanchez Vicario, who stopped a 15-match losing streak against Hingis in Friday's quarterfinals but had little left for Mauresmo. She also played a doubles match 24 hours earlier.
"I had to be aggressive, but I played two very tough matches yesterday and she had two days off," Sanchez Vicario said. "She was fresher than me and I made more errors."
Mauresmo's streak includes titles in her homeland at Paris and Nice in February. She goes for her third title of the year against Coetzer, the petite South African who was in danger of losing to the world's 90th-ranked player.
After winning the first set, Petrova notched a service break and was serving at 4-2, 40-love in the second set. But Coetzer turned it around, winning that game and four of the next five to take the set and the momentum.
"I don't know how I got out of that," Coetzer said. "She made it very difficult by hitting the ball deep and taking it early. She was also getting some free points on her serve.
"This was one of the toughest matches of my whole career. It will be one of those matches I look back on at the end of the year and be glad I won."
Coetzer will be looking for her ninth career title and second this season. On March 3, she won the Mexican Open, also on clay.
