Mladenovic falls to Lucic-Baroni in Strasbourg
Caroline Garcia will meet Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the final of the WTA Internationaux de Strasbourg.
Kristina Mladenovic failed to reach a second successive Internationaux de Strasbourg final as she went down in straight sets to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on Friday.
The world number 29 made it to the final of this WTA International clay-court event 12 months ago, only to lose to Samantha Stosur.
And she fell at the second-to-last hurdle this time around as qualifier Lucic-Baroni eased to a 6-1 6-1 triumph in a little over an hour.
Lucic-Baroni will face Caroline Garcia in the final, after the Frenchwoman battled back from a set down against compatriot Virginie Razzano to prevail 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 7-5.
At a set and 3-0 down it looked a perilous position for Garcia, but she roared back to take six of the next seven games to force a decider.
And in the final set, Razzano again looked well poised to book her final berth, serving for the match at 5-3 up.
But Garcia dug deep, reeling off four successive games and conceding just three points in the process as she stormed into a showdown with Lucic-Baroni.