Tennis-Putintseva to play Zidansek in Nuremberg title clash

Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva overcame unseeded Sorana Cirstea 6-4 7-5 in the Nuremberg Cup semi-finals on Friday and will face Tamara Zidansek in the final on Saturday. Putintseva won a three-hour, 21-minute marathon encounter against Anna-Lena Friedsam on Thursday -- the longest women's match of the year so far -- but showed little signs of fatigue as she kept alive hopes of a maiden WTA title.

Zidansek later reached her first WTA singles final after the unseeded Slovenian converted five of her nine break points to upset second-seeded Czech Katerina Siniakova 7-6(4) 6-2. Top seed Putintseva, who has lost in both of her WTA final appearances -- St Petersburg in 2017 and Guangzhou last year -- will be wary of Zidansek who defeated her in the pair's only previous meeting in Morocco earlier this season. (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Alison Williams)