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For the first time in 10 years, two teenagers will square off for the title at the Family Circle Cup. Caroline Wozniacki, 18, and Sabine Lisicki, 19, have been charming the Charleston crowds all week, and on Saturday they both got to within one match from the trophy with impressive semifinal wins.
Wozniacki, seeded No. 5 this week, cruised through her first three matches in straight sets but was pushed to the limit in the semifinals, beating No. 1 seed Elena Dementieva in a thriller, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5. After building a 6-4, 5-2 lead and squandering triple match point at 6-4, 5-3 she really dug deep to regroup in the third, finally taking the match on a forehand down-the-line winner.
For the No. 12-ranked Wozniacki, a win in Sunday's final would cap a perfect two weeks. She won her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title of the year last week in Ponte Vedra Beach and could become the first player since Nadia Petrova three years ago to pull off the American clay court double. Also, she will rise from No. 12 to No. 10 on the new rankings with a title - the first Danish player ever to crack the world's Top 10 (but if she loses she will still rise to a new career-high of No. 11).
Lisicki, the No. 16 seed, hasn't dropped a set all week, but has pulled off two upsets, beating No. 2 seed Venus Williams in the third round and No. 6 seed Marion Bartoli in the semifinals. The win over Williams was particularly hard-fought, as she rallied from behind in both sets: 2-4 in the first, 3-5 in the second - for a 6-4, 7-6(5) win over the world No. 5. This will be her second and biggest career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final, after a runner-up finish at a smaller event in Tashkent last fall.
Wozniacki and Lisicki have only met once before but there was drama, as the Dane rallied from 6-4, 4-2 down to win, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the early rounds of the Australian Open last year. But it has been a long time since then.
The finalists will both be trying to become the fifth player ever to win the Family Circle Cup in their debut appearance - the only ones who have done this before are Rosie Casals (1973), Chris Evert (1974), Justine Henin (2003) and Venus Williams (2004).
At No. 63, Lisicki could also become the lowest-ranked player ever to win the Family Circle Cup - the previous lowest-ranked winner was a No. 58-ranked Iva Majoli in 2002.
The doubles final, which precedes the 1pm singles final, pits No. 4 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Nadia Petrova against unseeded pair Liga Dekmeijere and Patty Schnyder. Combined, the four players have a total of 25 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles titles between them: Petrova 15, Schnyder five, Mattek-Sands four and Dekmeijere one. Both teams are looking for their first titles together, though.
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