ESPN Tennis

BASTAD, Sweden -- Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki beat Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 Friday to reach the Swedish Open final for the first time.

Wozniacki will play unseeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in Saturday's final, after she defeated Gisela Dulko 7-5, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Ninth-ranked Wozniacki broke Pennetta's serve twice in the third set, wrapping up the match on her second match point when the Italian player netted a backhand return.

"I was a little bit tired yesterday, but I felt stronger in my legs today," Wozniacki said.

Pennetta, seeded third in the clay-court tournament, forced a third set when she broke Wozniacki in the 10th game of the second set, hitting a volley that the Dane could not return.

It was the first time in four matches that Wozniacki dropped a set in the tournament.

Wozniacki, who turns 19 on Saturday, has won five WTA titles, including two this year -- at Ponte Vedra and Eastbourne. She reached the fourth round at Wimbledon.

"It will be fun tomorrow. Win or lose, I'll celebrate by going to a Britney Spears concert in Copenhagen during the evening," Wozniacki said. "After that I'm going to take a three-week vacation."

The final will be the first meeting between Martinez Sanchez and Wozniacki.

"My game is difficult for my opponents, it's not easy to read me," Martinez Sanchez said after coming back from a 4-2 deficit in the second set to beat Dulko.

It was their second match this year. Martinez Sanchez also beat Dulko in the Bogota final in February when the Argentine won just five games.

The Bogota title is Martinez Sanchez's lone career singles crown. The Spaniard has won eight WTA doubles titles and is in the hunt for the Swedish Open doubles title with compatriot Nuria Llagostera Vives.

The Swedish Open moved back to Bastad, where the first women's tournament was held in 1948, after five years on hard courts at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press