Czech mates: Lucie Safarova, Petra Kvitova to contest Connecticut Open final

Fourth seed Lucie Safarova advanced to the final of the Connecticut Open WTA event on Friday with a straight sets victory over Lesya Tsurenko of Ukraine.

Connecticut: Second-seeded defending champion Petra Kvitova defeated four-time winner Caroline Wozniacki on Friday to set up an all-Czech final against Lucie Safarova at the WTA hardcourt tournament in New Haven.

Kvitova, winner of the US Open tune-up event in 2012 and 2014, roared back from a 5-3 deficit in the first set -- saving one set point -- to defeat third-seeded Wozniacki 7-5, 6-1.

"A most difficult first set," Kvitova said. "I was really focusing and every game was so close -- a few points and it would have been on the other side."

Wozniacki admitted that she had no answer once Kvitova got rolling.

"The thing is, I don`t think there`s any player on tour that hits it harder than she does," Wozniacki said. "She has such good depth on the ball. If you play short she`s going to punish you straight away."

Trailing 4-1 in the second set, Wozniacki had her left knee wrapped.

But with the start of the US Open coming up on Monday, the Dane said it was a familiar problem, not an injury concern for the final Grand Slam of the year.

"It`s something that I`ve been struggling with for a couple of years," she said. "But I just wanted to make sure it was taped because the tape was starting to loosen up a little bit. I just wanted something that was a little bit stronger on the knee.

"But it was nothing, really. Nothing major."

Kvitova reached her fourth straight New Haven final, where she`ll face fourth-seeded compatriot Safarova.

Safarova, the French Open runner-up who is ranked sixth in the world, beat Ukrainian lucky loser Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).

Tsurenko broke Safarova three times -- saving a match point at 5-4 -- to force the second-set tiebreaker, but couldn`t force a third set.

"I had to go back to basics to calm myself down," Safarova said of thwarting Tsurenko`s bid to rally. "I just had to start to play more aggressive and go for the shots."