CARSON, Calif. — Riding her big serve honed as a doubles specialist, Samantha Stosur routed Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday to reach the final of the LA Women's Tennis Championships.

Now the Aussie hopes she can win a title on her own.

Stosur's greatest success has come with a partner, having won 22 career titles, achieved the No. 1 doubles ranking and earned two Grand Slam mixed titles.

She's enjoying a strong start to the summer hardcourt season, reaching the Carson final a week after her semifinal finish that included a three-set win over Serena Williams at Stanford.

"My whole career I've been trying to get to this point," Stosur said. "It kind of looks like I've done it late, but I don't worry too much about that. I took a little longer to develop."

She'll seek to end her status as perennial runner-up in Sunday's final, where she will play either Maria Sharapova or 10th-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy, who met in a night semifinal.

Stosur has lost in four career singles finals, including one last year in Seoul. A victory Sunday could boost the Aussie into the top 15 for the first time from her current ranking of 19th.

"The last one in Seoul, I got a little bit ahead of myself," she said. "Since then I've gotten a lot better at closing out matches. If I can handle it right, there's no reason I can't do it.

"I've just got to treat it like I have the last four matches here and don't think of it like a final."

Stosur lost just four points on her serve in the first set, dominating with three love games. She earned the only break in the second game, also the only one that went to deuce.

"I was putting balls in places she didn't really want to move to," she said. "Maybe she wasn't moving as best she can, but I made it hard on her. I kept pressure on her the whole match."

The Aussie won 81 percent of her total service points in the 62-minute match.

"That's her biggest weapon," Cirstea said. "I knew with her you don't get too many chances and if you don't take the ones you have, it's tough."

Stosur served three of her seven aces in the second game of the second set. She then led 2-1 after breaking Cirstea, who committed 25 unforced errors in the match. She went up 4-1 with another service break and closed out the match when Cirstea pulled a backhand service return wide.

Cirstea, a 19-year-old Romanian, was bothered by pain from plantar fasciitis in her right foot, the same problem she had in Friday's three-set win over Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

"It was bothering me," she said. "She was in good form and if I wanted to beat her I had to be 100 percent. Sam was playing so good, she didn't give me any chances."