Amelia Island, April 8:

France’s Tatiana Golovin moved a step closer to her first WTA Tour singles title, beating Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the Bausch & Lomb semi-finals on Saturday. The eighth-seeded Golovin will face top-seeded Nadia Petrova, a 7-6 (4), 6-1 winner over Sybille Bammer.

It was the French teen’s first win over the sixth-seeded Ivanovic in six tries, but the outcome could have easily been a sixth consecutive loss. The two 19-year-old players battled on serve into the 10th game of the first set, when at 30-30, Ivanovic made a pair of unforced errors to hand Golovin the first set.

Ivanovic won the second set to even the match, and had numerous chances to gain the upper hand in the third set. She had at least one breakpoint opportunity in each of Golovin’s first four service games in the third set, including eight chances in the first three games. But she was only able to convert on the eighth chance, to shave Golovin’s lead to 4-2.

Even when she held a 5-2 lead in the third set, Golovin said she didn’t feel secure. “I was up on her at 5-1 in a tournament at Zurich and she came back to win,” Golovin said. “She was hitting some amazing shots out there. I just had to keep at it and keep the pressure on her.”

Petrova jumped ahead 4-1 in the first set, but Bammer broke Petrova and forged into a 4-4 tie. Petrova won the tiebreaker 7-4. The second set proved to be little more than a formality. Petrova won six of the seven games in 30 minutes to earn her third consecutive berth in the finals.