U.S. Open top seed Caroline Wozniacki rallied from a break down in the third set to beat Elena Dementieva 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) on Friday night, earning her third consecutive trip to the finals of the Pilot Pen tennis tournament.
The tournament's two-time defending champion is 12-0 in her three trips to New Haven.
Dementieva has been to these semifinals four times and lost all four.
The Russian appeared to be cruising early, breaking Wozniacki in her first two service games of the match and again in the final game of the first set.
But the Danish star responded with a service break of her own in the opening game of the second set, and won the set when neither player could hold serve during the final four games.
Dementieva got an early lead in the final set and was serving for the match at 5-4.
"I just told myself, `Keep fighting,'" Wozniacki said. "She still has to win four more points to win the match so you're still in there."
Wozniacki took that game, then went up 6-5. But she couldn't finish off Dementieva, who fought off three match points, and went up 3-0 in the tiebreaker before Wozniacki rallied for the win.
After winning last week in Montreal and making another run here, Wozniacki said she's not feeling the pressure of being the top seed when the Open gets under way next week.
"Pressure is when you're put in a spot and you don't really feel like you belong there," she said. "When you really believe that you belong there, that you can do the things you have to do, there's no pressure. You just go out there and play."
The Russian appeared to be cruising early, breaking Wozniacki in her first two service games of the match and again in the final game of the first set.
But the Danish star responded with a service break of her own in the opening game of the second set, and won the set when neither player could hold serve during the final four games.
Dementieva got an early lead in the final set and was serving for the match at 5-4.
"I just told myself, `Keep fighting,'" Wozniacki said. "She still has to win four more points to win the match so you're still in there."
Wozniacki took that game, then went up 6-5. But she couldn't finish off Dementieva, who fought off three match points, and went up 3-0 in the tiebreaker before Wozniacki rallied for the win.
After winning last week in Montreal and making another run here, Wozniacki said she's not feeling the pressure of being the top seed when the Open gets under way next week.
"Pressure is when you're put in a spot and you don't really feel like you belong there," she said. "When you really believe that you belong there, that you can do the things you have to do, there's no pressure. You just go out there and play."
She will face Russian Nadia Petrova in Saturday's final. The No. 19 player in the world, who was a last-minute wild-card entry to the tournament, beat Maria Kirilenko 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Kirilenko broke Petrova twice in the first set, but said she felt a pain in her back after lunging for a ball. She took a medical timeout in the second set and had a hard time moving.
"I made a very fast movement and then I start to feel it even more," she said. "Then I couldn't even bend at all. Then it went a little bit better when the (trainer) came out. But still I decided to continue because no reason, you know, just even if you have a pain, you have to try."
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