San Diego: Agnieszka Radwanska reached her second straight final at the WTA San Diego Open on Saturday defeating ailing Andrea Petkovic 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Germany's second-seeded Petkovic was hampered by a stomach virus and had to sprint through the stands to leave the court at mid-game in the second set as her stomach played up.
She returned, made her apologies and dropped the second set 0-6.
"I had something bad for lunch," explained the German. "I tried eating a banana before the match but that made it worse. It was like a rock in my stomach that I had to get rid of."
She added that the decision to run off court as opposed to perhaps being ill on it was a careful deliberation: "I didn't want to be on (ESPN programme) SportsCenter for the next 25 years," she joked, a reference to a clip of Pete Sampras once throwing up at the US Open that has received repeated play on television.
"After, I felt much, much better but the problem was that I dropped intensity. I had trouble finding back my focus and my intensity after that.
"I felt fine throughout the whole match. Afterwards, I felt sick again, but throughout the match I felt totally fine after that little incident."
Interruption aside, Radwanska called the contest "a very tough match."
"Even if she was sick she was playing incredibly. It was great to finally win."
Petkovic rallied in the third set, stopping the rot after Radwanska won 10 straight games to take a 4-0 lead in the final set.
Petkovic earned a service break and narrowed the gap to 3-4 before Radwanska hit the accelerator and eventually served out the victory on her first match point after two hours, 10 minutes.
Poland's Radwanska was runner-up here last year to Svetlana Kuznetsova in her last appearance in a WTA final.
Radwanska, who has battled a sore right shoulder all week, will face either top-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva or Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in Sunday's final.
Despite the defeat, Petkovic will move into the Top 10 in the world rankings for the first time on Monday, displacing Australian Samantha Stosur
