New York: World number two Caroline Wozniacki battled into the final of the New Haven Open with a 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 win over Russia's Elena Dementieva on Friday as the Dane targets a third hardcourt title in four weeks.
Wozniacki, who will be the top seed at the US Open next week, was late arriving in New Haven after playing a semifinal and final at the rain-hit event in Montreal on Monday and appeared to struggle in the opening set.
The Dane recovered to win the second set but needed to dig deep in the third to keep her New Haven title defence alive.
With Dementieva serving to stay in the match at 6-5, Wozniacki had triple break-point only to watch the Russian sweep the next five points to force a tiebreak, which she recovered to win 7-5 on her first match point.
Wozniacki can head to Flushing Meadows riding the momentum from claiming back-to-back titles with a victory over Nadia Petrova in Saturday's final.
The eighth seeded Russian rallied for a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over compatriot Maria Kirilenko, who was bothered by a sore back that required treatment during the match.
Petrova dropped her serve twice in the opening set but could not be broken again, reaching her 20th career final.
"When Maria called for the physio, those couple of minutes did very well for me," Petrova, told the WTA's official website. "I saw she was struggling and believed I could come back and win. "I cut down on my mistakes and focused a lot on my serve."
The men's final will have ninth seed Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine taking on Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin.
Stakhovsky did not face a break point as he advanced with a tidy 6-3, 6-4 win over the Netherlands Thiemo de Bakker.
Istomin, who is coached by his mother, battled past Serbia's Viktor Troicki 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 to reach Saturday's final where he will try to become the first player from Uzbekistan to win an ATP Tour title.
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