Mauresmo Reaches Final Of Diamond Games

Amelie Mauresmo moved within one victory of winning a $1.3 million diamond-studded racket trophy on Saturday, beating Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to reach the final of the Diamond Games tournament.

Top-seeded Mauresmo will face either home favorite Kim Clijsters or Tatiana Golovin of France. They play their semifinal later Saturday. It will be Mauresmo's first final of the season.

If double defending champion Mauresmo wins on Sunday, she will be able to claim the racket trophy which goes to the first player to win the tournament three times in any five-year span.

Mauresmo won the first set in half an hour before Chakvetadze, who lost to Mauresmo in Paris last week, forced herself back into the match.

"I couldn't find my rhythm," said Mauresmo. "I will have to improve tomorrow."

The seventh-seeded Chakvetadze, 19, showed her inexperience in the deciding set, losing her first service match on a double fault. Mauresmo raced to a 4-0 lead, before winning 6-2.

"I found my concentration again," Mauresmo said.

The third-ranked player was troubled by a leg injury earlier this year and her agility in the backcourt suffered. Mauresmo was eliminated in the fourth round at the Australian Open and made it to the semifinals of the Gaz de France Open in Paris last week.

But after struggling in her first match in Antwerp, Mauresmo has recaptured her blend of power and speed that she showed in 2006.