Kvitova and Bouchard to face off in final

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard and Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova won their semi-finals yesterday to set up Saturday’s final.

Bouchard, ranked 13^th before the tournament, defeated Romanian Simona Halep 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 to reach her first Grand Slam final. She reached the semi-finals in France and Australia but failed to progress.

“I am really excited,” Bouchard exclaimed after the win. “It is my first Grand Slam final and I will just go for it.”

Third seed Halep has been struggling with injury throughout the tournament and she added to her struggle by going over her ankle badly in the fourth game. She explained that after that “it was difficult to continue. I felt a big pain in the moment, but then was better with the tape,”

“But still I couldn’t push anymore in my leg. My first serve was really bad after that. Yeah, it was difficult to continue with another injury.”

Tennis experts believe Bouchard will move up to seventh in the world after reaching the semi-final. Of course, that will be higher if she wins.

The other semi-final saw Kvitova defeat her fellow Czech, Lucie Safarova, 7-6 (8-6) 6-1. 

The 2011 champion said after her straight sets win: “It was a tough match mentally because Lucie is a great friend of mine.

“I tried to be focused from the start of the second set. I managed to break her service in the first game and just kept it going and served well.

“I am just emotional from this match. I have two days before the final to focus but I know how it feels to lift that trophy so I will try my best to do it again.”