While much of the northern part of the country was digging out from a record breaking winter storm, the action was hot at the Dow Corning Classic.
Midland, Mich. received some snow this week, but missed out on all fun the northeast was having, much to the relief of tournament organizers.
The first semifinal of the day seemed to be too close to call. Mallory Burdette was sharp all week and seemed to be comfortable on the indoor courts. Ajla Tomljanovic has been the hottest player on the USTA Pro Circuit so far in 2013.
Throughout the match, Tomljanovic used her powerful serve to her advantage, keeping the former Stanford player at bay. After winning a tight first set 7-5, The 19-year old cruised through the second set 6-0 to gain entry to Sunday's final.
For Tomljanovic, she feels relieved to be healthy and be playing well.
“2012 was real hard on me mentally but I really expected to gain something from being out so long,” said the native of Croatia. “Mentally I think I grew up, you know, I matured and I think it showed.”
Her opponent will be top-seeded American, Lauren Davis who posted a close three set win over Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.
Davis used her consistent baseline game, but became aggressive when she needed to be.
This would be the biggest title of Davis' young career.
In the early semi final the doubles team of Maria-Fernanda Alves of Brazil and Samantha Murray of Great Britain defeated the three seeds Julia Cohen and Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-1.
In the evening doubles match Melinda Czink of Hungary and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia got past Americans Jill Craybas and CoCo Vandeweghe 7-6, 6-0.
Sunday's final begins at 1pm and the doubles final will follow.
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