Linz, 17.Oktober 2009 - The long season took it’s toll on top seed Flavia Pennetta and second seed Agnieszka Radwanska, as both were eliminated in the semi-finals of the Generali Ladies.

The first to go was Radwanska, who has played 14 matches in three weeks, including the final last weekend in Beijing where she fell to Svetlana Kuznetsova. The weary Pole was beaten 6-3 6-2 by unseeded Czech Petra Kvitova, who will now bid for a second career title to add to the one she claimed in Hobart at the beginning of the year.

Four of the first five games went against serve, leaving Kvitova leading 4-1. Radwanska in fact lost her first three service games, the second of them at love and the third with the assistance of three double-faults. Although Kvitova failed to serve out the set at 5-2, she broke Radwanska for a fourth time in the next game to seal the set.

In the second set the Czech broke to lead 2-0, fought off a break point in the next game, and then sealed her victory in a lengthy eighth game that stretched to deuce eight times before she closed out the match on her seventh match point.

´I was looking to reach the quarter-finals so I’m very happy,´ said Kvitova. ´I think Agnieszka was tired from her matches before this. The last game was nervous for me because Agnieszka is a top 10 player so I knew she could come back against me.´

Radwanska now travels on to Moscow in a bid to earn enough race points to compete at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha. But she know it will be difficult to overtake Jelena Jankovic and Vera Zvonareva, who rested this week.

´I was tired,´ she said. ´I’m happy I could even get to the semi-final here. I tried but it was just too tough. She played all right, but she didn’t have to do anything special to beat me.´

Pennetta offered more resistance against third seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, who last month reached the semi-finals of the US Open. The Italian recovered from 0-3 to serve for the first set at 5-4, but she allowed Wickmayer to level at 5-5 and then edge through the tiebreak. There could have been fireworks on the final point of the set, as with Wickmayer leading 6-5 a return from Pennetta was called long but over-ruled by the umpire. But Wickmayer kept her composure, and Pennetta made an error when the point was replayed.

The second set was evenly contested, with the first break point coming at 3-3. Pennetta double-faulted for the sixth time to concede that game and, after Wickmayer survived a break point in the next game when Pennetta made a weak return, a winning pass on match point in the next game settled the outcome. The loss not only cost Pennetta a place in the final, but her slim chance of qualifying for Doha.

´I’ve been so close to beating a top player the last couple of months and finally I beat one. I’m very excited,´ said Wickmayer. ´I started off well but then she started serving really well and I just tried to stay aggressive, stay up in the court. That’s been working well for me this week.

´The people were really into it, the whole week actually. I really love the crowd. They’re really supportive and they’re not noisy during the points. They’re really great. Playing here had been great. It’s my first year and I’ve really enjoyed playing every minute of it. I’m really happy I came´