Pennetta, Zheng to meet in Auckland final

Auckland: Flavia Pennetta made up for quarterfinal loss to Angelique Kerber at last year's US Open when she beat the unseeded German 6-1, 6-2 to reach the ASB Classic final on Friday.

Fourth-seeded Pennetta will face China's Zheng Jie in Saturday's final after the unseeded Zheng rallied from a set down to beat third-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Pennetta will contest the Auckland final for the second time after being the runner-up in 2010. The world No. 20 has nine singles titles to her credit while Zheng will be seeking her fourth title from six WTA Tour finals.

Italy's Pennetta lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to Kerber at the 2011 US Open but improved her record against the German to 2-1, winning Friday's semifinal in only 59 minutes.

She has yet to drop a set in four matches at the Auckland tournament and has lost only six games in the last two rounds.

Pennetta swept the first set in 26 minutes with breaks in the third, fifth and seventh games, rallying from 15-40 down to hold her own serve in the fourth game. She moved smoothly around the court and hit accurately, refusing to allow Kerber to settle into her rhythm.

Pennetta took the second set in 33 minutes with service breaks in the fourth and eighth games. She converted five of her seven break point chances while Kerber failed to convert any of her three opportunities.

"It was very emotional for me," Pennetta said. "I remembered the quarterfinal at the US Open and a lot of thoughts came into my mind."

Kuznetsova, the world No. 19 dropped only 14 games in reaching the semifinals. She seemed likely to carry on in the same vein on Friday when she swept the first set in 49 minutes with service breaks in the second and fourth games, dropping serve in the seventh.

Zheng knuckled down in the second set and played with much more accuracy while Kuznetsova became error-prone and started to play more defensively.

"My coach came onto the court after the first set and told me to focus," Zheng said. "I have to thank my coach. He said on every point I should try to play well.

Zheng took the second set in 44 minutes, breaking Kuznetsova in the seventh and last games, then gained the advantage in the final set with a break in the fourth and sixth games.