Tennis: Radwanska beats Bartoli to reach Miami final

MIAMI: World number four Agnieszka Radwanska beat French seventh seed Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday to reach the women's final of the Miami hardcourt tennis tournament.

Poland's Radwanska, who shrugged off a power outage that halted the match for more than 30 minutes to wrap up the victory, will face world number two Maria Sharapova in the championship match on Saturday.

Radwanska ended an impressive run by Bartoli, who had handed world number one Victoria Azarenka her first defeat of 2012 in the quarter-finals.

Radwanska's victory over Bartoli was more straightforward, but included an injury to the seventh-seeded French player as well as a power outage that held up proceedings in the second set.

She kept her concentration and returned to finish off Bartoli, who reached the semi-finals by handing world number one Victoria Azarenka her first defeat of 2012.

A day after that triumph, Bartoli was hindered by a left thigh injury and had 35 unforced errors, failing to hold serve once.

Radwanska's reward was a meeting with Sharapova, who has won seven of their eight encounters. (AFP)