By Dustin Dow
Enquirer staff writer

MASON - For a set and a half Saturday, Vera Zvonareva looked lost on Center Court.

Vera Zvonareva beat Amy Frazier in three sets. (Enquirer photo/JEFF SWINGER)

Tennis balls came off her racket and flew either into the net or out of bounds.

Then suddenly and surprisingly, Zvonareva found control over her stroke and defeated Amy Frazier 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 in the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open.

The second-seeded Zvonareva will play No. 1 seed Lindsay Davenport at 1 p.m. today for the championship at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

Zvonareva fought off two match points down 5-6 during the second set when it appeared her wildness would cost her the match.

But ironically she used her service game to get out of that jam and then served an ace on her own match point in the third set.

"She aced me once and hit a great first serve," Frazier said of losing her second-set match points. "There's nothing I can do about that. She was just too good."

During the first two sets, Zvonareva combined to commit 36 unforced errors and 12 double faults.

She did not commit another double fault in the third set and finished with 42 unforced errors and 16 aces.

She cried and slammed her racket at times in the first set, and appeared distraught after she doubled-faulted to lose the set.

"I had so many mistakes. I didn't know what to do," Zvonareva said. "I said to myself at the beginning of the second set, 'I should start over.' "

It seemed to work when Zvonareva took a 4-1 second-set lead, but she quickly allowed Frazier back into the set.

"It was hard for me to play safely," Zvonareva said. "Because if I would play safe, she would have attacked me all the time, and I would have the same errors, and I wouldn't have any winners.

"So I had to stay aggressive. ... I finally found my game in the third set."

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E-mail ddow@enquirer.com