Ponte Vedra, Florida: After winning only one game in the first set and trailing 5-3 in the second, Caroline Wozniacki was pondering elimination from the MPS Group Championships before a fightback Saturday that put her into the final.
The top-seeded Dane dug deep to beat fourth-seeded Elena Vesnina 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 in their semifinal. "I thought I was out already," Wozniacki said. "I said 'keep fighting, do what you can,' but it didn't look like my day at the office."
Wozniacki, the top seed and defending champion, will face Belarus' Olga Govortsova in Sunday's final. Govortsova defeated third-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 7-5 in the other semi.
After the first set drubbing, Vesnina used pin-point placement to build the second set lead and was serving for the match when Wozniacki broke and started her climb back.
"That's when I felt like I had a chance," Wozniacki said. "I was just missing everything by one, two inches and once I said 'OK, I'm back in the rally' she killed the shot so I didn't feel like I could do anything. It has to turn around at some point. I need to get the chance at some point but it just didn't look like it until 5-3."
Vesnina blamed her loss on a lack of aggressive play.
"At 5-3, I became too passive," she said. "I started to wait for mistakes from Caroline. She's a good fighter. She's like a wall."
Govortsova, playing without a coach this week, rallied from a 4-2 deficit to win the first set. She then fought off Cibulkova to take a second set that was highlighted by a 20-point eighth game.
"Sometimes it's good for you to be alone," Govortsova said. Her coach, Eddie Jakes, had other duties to attend to.
Cibulkova, playing with a heavily taped right groin, said the injury will force her to withdraw from next week's event.
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