By Chris Oddo | Friday April 14, 2017
Might there be another title in the offing for 36-year-old Francesca Schiavone? The 36-year-old, in her last season of professional tennis has suddenly hit her stride on the red clay – go figure – of Bogota, and she moved into the final at the Claro Open Colsanaitas with a 7-5, 6-4 win over third-seeded Johanna Larsson of Sweden.
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The victory catapults Schiavone into her first career final since she won Rio in February of 2016, and it marks her tenth career final on clay. Schiavone has won six of nine of those clay finals—including her emotional, clay-kissing run to the 2010 Roland Garros title that captivated so may.
Schiavone will face Lara Arruabarrena in the final.
The 2012 champion defeated Sara Sorribes Tormo in three sets to book her spot in her third career final, and first clay final since she won the title in Bogota in 2012.
Schiavone and Arruabarrena have never met before.
Schiavone saved seven of ten break points to defeat Larsson for the second time in two career meetings. The Italian, who upset top-seeded Kiki Bertens in Thursday’s quarterfinals, snapped a nine-match losing streak against the Top 25 with the win. She had not defeated a Top-25 player since beating Svetlana Kuznetsova at Roland Garros in 2015.