The two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) and qualifier Caroline Garcia (France) will play in the final of the WTA 1000 Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (USA) with a prize pool of 2,527,250 USD.
Caroline Garcia became the first qualifier to reach the final of the WTA 1000 tournament after a difficult victory over the sixth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus). In a match interrupted twice for prolonged periods due to rain, the French tennis player triumphed with 2-1 (6:2, 4:6, 6:1) for 2:05 hours.
Caroline Garcia recorded 81.3% of the first service points and 8 aces won, while Aryna Sabalenka made 7 double faults. The 28-year-old French tennis player, who was fourth in the 2018 world rankings, broke her opponent six times. In the third set after 1:1, Caroline Garcia made a series of five consecutive games and closed the match.
Thus, the French tennis player secured her participation in the title match against Petra Kvitova, who beat the 2019 champion Madison Keys in the other semifinal by 2-1 (6:7, 6:4, 6:3) for 2:18 hours.
In the third set, the Czech tennis player made two break and ended the match with her third break.
For Petra Kvitova, this will be the 40th final in her career at WTA tournaments and she will fight for the 30th title.