Champ Kvitova to face Halep in New Haven final

NEW HAVEN: Reigning champion Petra Kvitova breezed into her second straight New Haven WTA final on Friday, where she’ll face red-hot Romanian Simona Halep.
Kvitova didn’t put a foot wrong in a 6-0, 6-1 semifinal victory over her Czech FedCup teammate Klara Zakopalova.
Halep defeated fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki — a former world No.1 and four-time winner of this event — 6-2, 7-5.
Halep broke Wozniacki three times in each set to claim the victory in one hour and 20 minutes.
Kvitova, seeded third, needed just 50 minutes to get past unseeded Zakopalova in the semifinals of this US Open tune-up on the hardcourts at Yale University.
“I think the beginning of the match was pretty close,” Kvitova said. “Klara had chances to win the first game and the next game when she was serving. I think that was the turning point.
Zakopalova, ranked 33rd in the world. “I think everything was working for her, so I have to just congratulate her, wish her good luck because she was the better player today, for sure. She can beat anybody with this game.” Kvitova, who beat Russia’s Maria Kirilenko in last year’s final, will be trying to defend a title for the first time.
The 23-year-old Czech claimed the 11th title of her career in Dubai in February.
She has never before played Halep, a 21-year-old who is enjoying a breakout season that has included her first three WTA titles.
She gained a further measure of notoriety this month when her second round victory over Marion Bartoli at Cincinnati was quickly followed by the French Wimbledon champion’s abrupt retirement from the sport.

Melzer in final

In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, former top-10 players Gael Monfils and Jurgen Melzer beat higher-ranked players Friday night to advance to the Winston-Salem Open final.
Frenchman Monfils overcame early struggles to beat Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine 7-6 (11), 6-3 in the first semifinal at the Wake Forest Tennis Center.
“It’s very good for my confidence,” said Monfils, who will play in his third tournament final of the season and his first since Nice, France, in mid-May.
“I’m not so happy with the way I played. I could have played better. I have to play better and be more sure of things.” Melzer, from Austria, then pulled off the biggest upset in the night match, beating American Sam Querrey — at No. 29, the highest ranked player in the semifinals, and the crowd favorite — 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
Melzer — ranked as high as No. 8 in 2011 — broke Querrey’s serve five times, and kept him off-balance for most of the match with his groundstrokes and net game.
Still, Querrey fought back after losing the first set, getting a pair of service breaks en route to winning the second set. He then held serve to open the third set and grab the early advantage.
“I felt like I played really well for 1½ sets,” said Melzer, who lost two previous matches against Querrey. “Then I kind of lost it a little bit, got a little too passive on my side and forgot about the game plan. I was lucky in the beginning of the third (set) to not get broken again. But after that, I started playing well again.” Querrey nearly pulled off another service break to open the third set, putting Melzer down 15-40 in the second game. But Melzer fought back to hold serve, then broke Querrey’s serve the next game to take the advantage.
“I didn’t feel my greatest out there,” Querrey said, who lost in the semifinals for the second straight year. “I played a little sloppy in the first set, then that break in the second (set) helped me regain all the momentum. If I could’ve stuck that other break in the third set, maybe it could’ve been different.”