Emma Navarro and Olga Danilovic will play against each other in the final of the WTA 125 Nordea Open in Bastad. Both the players continue their successful run of form after coming back to compete on clay. The American, who is a top seed in main draw of the tournament in Sweden, will play for her 4th title in the 2023 season, which is definitely the best one in her career so far. Navarro has won the ITF tournaments in Naples, Charleston and Charlottesville earlier in the year, all of them at clay surface. Danilovic approaches the final in Bastad with 14 wins out of 15 latest matches played on clay, including the victory in WTA 125 tournament in Madrid and the only one loss against Ons Jabeur in the 3rd round of Roland Garros.
Navarro does well as a top seed
Navarro has gave away just one set on the road to the final, going into full distance in second round's match against home crowd's favorite Mirjam Bjorklund. The American has showed a dominant performance in the quarterfinal, defeating Tamara Zidansek by 6-0 6-4. After a perfect start in opening set, Navarro had to chase the score in second set, while being 1-4 down, but regrouped herself very well and stroke another series of 5 games won in a row, moving into semis.
Sensational run of Chirico
Louise Chirico was the opponent of Navarro in the all-American semifinal's clash. The player currently ranked 251th in the WTA list, was the biggest surprise of whole the tournament. Chirico performed an impressive upset on the best ranked home representative Rebecca Peterson in second round and followed that with another surprising victory over another American - Claire Liu. Despite being rated with an odd 3.18 ahead of the match against the tournament's 7th seed, Chirico prevailed in second consecutive three-setter against the higher rated opponent, winning by 6-4 3-6 6-1. The sensational American was a tough opponent for Emma Navarro in the semifinals as well. Chirico was leading in both sets, but the current world's number 55 has finally ended up the run of the lower ranked American, moving into final with the score 6-4 6-4.
Danilovic prevails in tough draw
Olga Danilovic had a really tough road to the final, looking at the names of her opponents in the quarters and semis. The Serbian has played against Viktoriya Tomova in the QF and done well in a role of the favorite in the clash between two top 100 players, as she took the confident win with a score 6-3 6-3. The level has gone up in the semifinal, as Danilovic played the hit match of whole the tournament so far, fighting for the spot in the final against second seed Yulia Putintseva. Considering her good run of form, Danilovic was a pre-match favorite against a well-known Kazakh, but this match was a real rollercoaster. The Serbian has won a tight opening set by 6-4, but Putintseva responded with a pure dominance in second one, winning it with a bagel. Surprisingly, it was the second time this week, when Danilovic has lost the set by 0-6, which is quite an unusual fact in terms of the player, who approached the final of whole tournament. Putintseva could open the decider same well, as she produced two breakpoints in the opening game, but Danilovic performed a crucial hold to stop the momentum of her opponent. This was another turnover in this match, as Danilovic regrouped herself after horrible second set and won third set by 6-2. Putintseva had her chances the, as she could break back after losing serve for the score 1-3. The Serbian was working hard to defend her serve, as all her service games were tight in this set, but she was more consistent in the key points and delivered the victory to advance into Saturday's final.
