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Simona Halep, Samantha Stosur reach final of Tournament of Champions in Bulgaria

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Samantha Stosur of Australia returns a shot to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia during their semi-final tennis match of the WTA Tournament of the Champions in Sofia, Bulgaria, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/ Valentina Petrova) (The Associated Press)

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia returns a shot to Samantha Stosur of Australia during their semi-final tennis match of the WTA Tournament of the Champions in Sofia, Bulgaria, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/ Valentina Petrova) (The Associated Press)

Simona Halep and Samantha Stosur will meet in a WTA final for the second time in three weeks at the season-ending Tournament of Champions.

Top-seeded Halep rallied from a set down to beat Ana Ivanovic 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, and fourth-seeded Stosur outlasted Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 in the semifinals on Saturday.

Ahead of Sunday's final, Stosur leads their matchup 3-2, but Halep has won twice this season. She won their recent Kremlin Cup final for her fifth title of the year. Stosur has two titles this year.

Ivanovic, a two-time winner of the tournament, led 3-0 in the third set before Halep won six consecutive games.

Stosur raced through her first set, but Pavlyuchenkova won six straight games to win the second. In the third, Stosur earned the only break and held on.