Sharapova to play Zvonareva in Qatar final

By Barry Wood

DOHA (Reuters) - Maria Sharapova will face Vera Zvonareva in an all-Russian final at the Qatar Open after the fourth seed beat Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4 6-3 on Saturday.

Unseeded Zvonareva reached her second final of the year with a 3-6 6-3 6-3 win over China's Li Na in the first semi.

Sharapova failed to find much consistency but when she hit her stride the Russian was too powerful for Radwanska, who won their previous meeting at the 2007 U.S. Open.

"At the beginning of the match I was down a break and at that stage I was just trying to get my feet into the match," Sharapova told reporters. "I was very close to being down 3-0 and that's a tough position to be in.

"After a slow start all you want to do is get into the match and get going, and after that I think I did a good job and when things got tough in the end I maintained my focus and fought it out."

Radwanska, seeded 16, took advantage of several Sharapova errors to go 2-0 up in the first set and although the Australian Open champion broke back in the third game she needed to fight off three break points before holding for 2-2.

Three superb winning returns helped Sharapova break a second time to lead 4-3 but Radwanska continued to pressure her.

Although Sharapova broke for a 1-0 lead in the second set, she then dropped her own serve to love with a double fault. The world number five regained the lead with a break for 3-2 and a final break gave her the match.