TheSportsCampus

Top seeds Julie Coin and Sania Mirza kept up with their pre-tournament billing to book a place in the final of the ITF Lexington Challenger, Kentucky, USA.

Coin, who had a bit of a hiccup in her first round match against Mallory Cecil, has looked imperious since and wasted little time in dispatching Kai-Chen Chang of Chinese Taipei 6-2, 6-4 in Saturday's semi-final.

The Frenchwoman, ranked 63^rd in the World, broke early for a 2-0 lead in the opening set. She quickly stretched that advantage to 5-1, before wrapping up the set 6-2. The second looked to be headed in the same direction as the first as Coin broke early again for a 3-1 lead. The single break was enough on this occasion as she held on comfortably to close out the match 6-4.

Sania Mirza meanwhile was in action on Court 2, and came out like a house on fire. With a score to settle against Meng Yuan of China, who had beaten Mirza in each of their last two meetings, Sania blasted her way through the first set 6-1.

However, the inconsistency that has plagued the Mirza career resurfaced, as she dropped a close second set 6-4.

The final set was another ding-dong affair as Sania broke serve midway through the set to pull ahead 4-2. However, Yuan fought back to level the set at 4-4. Mirza showed tremendous courage raising the level of her play when it mattered the most to pull out the match 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

Sunday's meeting will be Coin and Mirza's first ever clash on tour. Both girls have had a rather ordinary year, and will be looking for a win tomorrow in an attempt to gather some momentum for the long hard-court summer ahead.Earlier in the event the Frenchwoman said, "Challengers aren‟t easy because girls not ranked are hungry and moving up...and I‟m the one everyone wants to beat."

Coin got her finals wish of facing Mirza, who as No. 27 in the world two years ago also had a target on her back this week. "It‟ good to see how you measure up to a player like that," she said, not fooled by Mirza‟s current No. 83 status.

"My goal for 2009 is just to stay healthy," said Mirza, who was out nearly eight months in 2008. "Injury is part of sport, but last year was tough on me. Being injured is like starting a new career...especially mentally to get back." The new year started well at the Australian Open where she and countryman Mahesh Bhupathi won the mixed doubles title; and this spring she went three sets with Venus Williams in Charleston, SC.

Both Coin and Mirza said they were happy to be in Lexington, battling for a Challenger title instead of playing qualies in Stanford, CA with the potential for more points and bigger paycheck. By reaching the Saturday semis, they were too late to enter singles in the Bank of the West Classic. They talked about playing doubles together there, but Coin wasn't ranked high enough for that - so Mirza is teaming with Megan Shaughnessey.

(Click here to read about the final)