Wuhan: Dominika Cibulkova defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday to book her place in the Wuhan Open finals, signalling an impressive return to form after being sidelined by injury.
The Slovak — who has spent more than six hours on court in the last two days — rallied from one set down to beat the double Grand Slam champion 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In the second semi-final, double Wimbledon winner and Olympic bronze medallist Petra Kvitova cruised past Simona Halep 6-1, 6-2.
Rain delays meant that Cibulkova played both her forth round and quarter finals matches on Thursday, claiming the scalp of US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova en route.
Her strong run at Wuhan marks an impressive return for the 27-year-old who missed four months of the season in 2015 after having surgery on her left foot.
A left calf injury also forced her to withdraw from the Rio Olympics.
“It’s never easy to come back after injury, especially when your ranking drops,” said Cibulkova after the match.
But she has reached five finals this year and the quarter finals at Wimbledon, and is now just points away from qualifying for the eight-player WTA Finals in Singapore for the first time.
“I’m a good player, I can beat top players. But I was missing consistency in my game. This is the first year that I’m really consistent playing the whole year,” the Slovak said.
Despite the semi-final loss, 31-year-old Kuznetsova — who reached world number two in 2007 — is enjoying a late-career resurgence and will likely reach her highest ranking in six years when next week’s leaderboard is released.
“I lost little bit my way when I got broken in second set because I felt like I was on top of the game after I won first set,” Kuznetsova told reporters after the match.
