Ferrer, Murray in final

David Ferrer came from a break down in the final set to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (3) on Saturday and set up a final against Andy Murray at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Top-seeded Ferrer will appear in his fourth final of the season. He is seeking his 22th career title and second of the year. Earlier, second-seeded Murray defeated Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 6-3 to reach his second final of the season after winning his 29th career title in Shenzhen last month. Today, Murray can become only the fifth still active player with 30 or more titles alongside Roger Federer (81), Rafael Nadal (64), Novak Djokovic (46) and Lleyton Hewitt ( 30). Murray leads Ferrer 7-6, though the fifth-ranked Spaniard won their only previous meeting this season in Shanghai last week. Both players are competing to qualify for the ATP Finals in London next month.

U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic reached the final of the Kremlin Cup on Saturday, beating Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. In today’s final, the big-serving Croatian will seek his fourth title of the season against Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut. The women’s final will pit sixth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania. Cilic faced stiff resistance from world No. 74 Kukushkin, despite the 68 ranking places separating them, and landed just 55 percent of first serves. World No. 16 Bautista Agut, seeded fifth in Moscow, will play in his third final of a breakout season after beating third-seeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-4. In the semifinals of the women’s WTA event, Pavlyuchenkova dominated Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakov from start to finish, winning 6-2, 6-2 to reach her 10th career final on the WTA tour. Earlier, Begu fought to a 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-3 win over fourth-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.

Serena Williams will play two of the tour’s young rising stars in the round-robin stage of this year’s WTA finals in Singapore. The draw Saturday placed the top-seeded Williams in the Red Group along with 23-year-old Simona Halep and 20-year-old Eugenie Bouchard, along with the more experienced Ana Ivanovic. The White Group sees second-seeded Maria Sharapova, the French Open champion, joined by Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska. Williams, 33, won this year’s U.S. Open and has won the past two WTA finals. The tournament starts Monday at the 10,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Russian Tennis Federation head Shamil Tarpischev was unrepentant about the recent comments he made about the Williams sisters, saying Saturday they were only meant as jokes and that he doesn’t understand why he was banned for a year by the WTA Tour. Tarpischev was fined $25,000 and suspended from tour involvement for a year after referring to Serena and Venus Williams as “brothers” on a Russian TV show and called them “scary” to look at. Asked whether he regretted his comments, Tarpischev told The Associated Press at the Kremlin Cup that the program on which he spoke was “a humorous show,” adding that “I don’t answer stupid questions.” When asked about his ban, Tarpischev said: “I can’t comment. I don’t understand it.” The WTA said it would seek his removal as chairman of the Moscow tournament, which ends today.